Islamabad, Aug 7 (IANS) Pakistan has witnessed countless protests and agitations, including some that directly challenged the country’s powerful military. Yet, despite massive demonstrations, particularly led by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in recent years, the movement has failed to achieve its objectives largely because it has remained centred around former Prime Minister Imran Khan, a report has stated.
Issues ranging from exam paper leaks and prolonged power cuts to economic distress are increasingly shaped by the country’s deep-rooted political polarisation and factional rivalries, according to a report in online magazine ‘The Diplomat’.
“Khan has been in Adiala jail since August 2023, and was sentenced again on December 20 of that year to 17 years in prison. His solitary confinement has been flagged by the U.N.’s special rapporteur on torture, and denied by the Pakistani government. Despite being Pakistan’s most popular leader, however, Khan cannot form the centre of a movement. His young supporters do not want a system repaired; they simply want a man released,” the report detailed.
According to the report, the PTI-led protests demanding Imran Khan’s release have centred on a single individual, unlike the recent Gen Z demonstrations, which were driven by shared public grievances.
“While a cause can build coalitions, a politician can be divisive. ‘The economy has collapsed’ implicates a whole country and can hold together people who agree on nothing else. ‘Free Imran Khan,’ in contrast, implicates one half of the country and repels the other,” it mentioned.
The report argued that a cause cannot be contained like an individual, enabling the establishment to sustain itself through personality politics, while the PTI draws nearly all the “political oxygen” in the country, leaving little for any other issue.
“What has helped the establishment is a ban on student unions imposed by General Zia-ul-Haq in 1984 that has never been lifted. A 1993 court ruling locked the ban in place, along with the affidavit that students and a parent must still sign, swearing off politics as the price of admission,” it mentioned.
Emphasising that Pakistan dismantled its independent student unions four decades ago without allowing any meaningful alternative to emerge, the report said its political parties have since become merely vehicles for individual personalities.
“The wall is not without a crack. Hamza Khawaja, a law graduate from Lahore University of Management Sciences, has petitioned the Supreme Court to restore the unions and strike down the pledge requirement for university admissions, and the court has put the government on notice to answer. Its outcome may not be as swift as mobilised action by a crowd, but it is the rare Pakistani fight waged over a system rather than in support of an individual saviour,” The Diplomat mentioned.
–IANS
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