By Zofeen T. Ebrahim, IANS
Karachi : No interesting graffiti, only the odd corner meeting and no bite even in the daily fare of verbal fisticuffs on TV. Pakistan’s parliamentary elections are only four days away, but the colour and verve are strangely missing.
And so people say this is the most lacklustre and pale election they have ever witnessed.
The reasons cited are many — fear of increased suicide and bomb attacks at public gatherings, price hikes making ends meet a daily impossibility, the missing face of Benazir Bhutto and lack of confidence in the interim government for holding free and fair elections.
But more than that, the feeling of helplessness and despair that nothing will change and that the winners will be “more of the same” seems all pervading and is keeping people away from poll meetings in the run-up to the elections on Feb 18.
In Karachi, especially, many have repeatedly pointed to the ‘missing’ Benazir Bhutto factor for this. It’s a vacuum – Bhutto was assassinated in Rawalpindi on Dec 27 last year – casting a long shadow.
Faisal Siddiqi, an advertising guru, says her “charisma and political acumen” will be missed. And Nasir Panhwar, a conservationist, adds that “for the people of Sindh (her home province) life is just not the same after BB”.
“It’s so dreary, meaningless, empty, shallow and dead,” says Najma Sadeque, a senior journalist who has stopped watching TV debates where “the focus is on outmanoeuvring one another, not on the people”.
Sadeque told IANS: “The last government had five years in which to wreck the country. And if that weren’t enough, the dynasties are back with a vengeance.”
Even Supreme Court lawyer Zahid Ebrahim, once in the forefront of the lawyer’s movement for reinstatement of the judiciary, finds “there is nothing to celebrate”.
“We are living in a time of cruel darkness and the worst is we don’t know even know the ‘enemy’ who has robbed us off this colour,” he says.
But more than anything it is the fear factor that is keeping the people away from participating in these elections.
“There is a palpable sense of foreboding,” Adil Najam, a Pakistani professor of Global Public Policy, Boston University and director of Pardee Centre, told IANS.
“Terrible things can happen and this is not just paranoia, this is experience. That has also dampened the pre-election build-up greatly.”
While agreeing that the “fear of violence and the feeling of helplessness in the wake of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto’s assassination” has resulted in zero fervour for the coming elections, Hussain Haqqani, former aide of Benazir Bhutto and now director of the Center for International Relations, Boston University, believes it is the “anger against the regime” that will make the post-election scenario strong.
Tracing the history of elections in the country, he cites reasons for the subsequent dampening of enthusiasm in the political processes in Pakistan. “The country has witnessed a demonisation of politics and politicians by the military and urban intelligentsia.”
“Analysis of past election results indicates that enthusiasm and voter turnout is directly related to the people’s belief about how much they would be able to change through the election. In 1970 and 1988, enthusiasm and turnout were high because people thought they could bring change. In 1985 and 2002, it was low because the dice was too loaded to make a difference.”
Referring to the recent polls conducted by a US funded group, the International Republican Institute, which show support for President Pervez Musharraf has plunged to an all-time low with a two-thirds support for the opposition, Haqqani expects “a last minute burst of popular interest and even relatively higher turnout”.
But if there is one person whose enthusiasm for the elections cannot be snuffed it is artist Salima Hashmi.
“I don’t find the elections colourless! There are so many crosscurrents that one can sense,” says Hashmi, dean of School of Visual Arts, Beaconhouse National University, in Lahore.
A little perplexed, she agrees, “For the first time ever, I cant ‘read’ what is about to happen.” However, she says, she will vote.