زرقا مفتی
محفلین
LONDON: Chairman of Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) Imran Khan has received glowing admiration from the western press for achieving the impossible by engaging with the Pakistani youth, a part of the electorate that traditionally feels alienated from mainstream politics.
Young voters across the globe feel disenfranchised by politics and broken promises. While the youth continue to harbour strong opinions about politics, this is not registered when it comes to actually voting in general elections because young people and apolitical masses think they cannot make a difference.
According to Britain’s Electoral Commission, 22% of students are not even registered to vote in the coming election here. National turnout was a mere 61% in 2005 election in the UK, and of that figure a paltry 37% of 18- to 24-year-olds registered a vote. The Commission has grave concerns about the statistics as it is widely accepted that young people who do not vote will develop the habit of not voting at all throughout their lives.
A recent survey by Nottingham Trent University attempted to understand why young voter figures continue to drop at every general election. It concluded that almost two thirds of young people in Britain have little or no trust in politicians because they said politicians failed to keep promises once they were elected. They also cited that the behaviour of both politicians and their political parties turned them off.
Pakistani politics, like British politics, is dominated by two parties. The youth in Pakistan have seen power alternate only between the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz). The Guardian wrote on Saturday, however, that Imran Khan was offering these young voters a “third-way” and his slogan of offering “change” is particularly appealing to them. In fact, the British press has noted several times that the youth of Pakistan go to the very heart of Imran Khan’s campaign.
The Guardian notes that there are visible and exciting signs that the feeling of political disenchantment has changed in Pakistan in this election and the credit for it is largely given to Imran Khan. “Few doubt the wave of enthusiasm Khan has inspired. Rallies over the past 18 months have been among the biggest for many years, and in Lahore he has won over everyone from wealthy young professionals to a 24-year-old tea seller in a rough central neighbourhood.”
“Khan’s campaign has triggered a wave of enthusiasm, particularly among younger voters. Nearly 35% of the 85 million people registered to take part in the elections are under 30 and nearly 60% under 40,” said the paper in its report.
Rejecting Nawaz Sharif’s charge that Imran Khan is “a sportsman not a politician”, the former captain told the Guardian that such attacks did not bother him. He said his style of politics, which consciously rejects patronage, tactical alliances and the support of powerful well-known figures with guaranteed vote banks threatens the established parties.
“Have you seen the energy? The passion? It’s huge. There is so much hope,” he told.
Policies such as forcing the wealthy to pay tax worry his political opponents, he said, along with his own party’s internal transparent democracy.
Khan told the paper that the roots of extremist groups waging war against Pakistan, liberal parties and local opponents, lay not in religion but the historic resistance of the Pashtun tribes to “outsiders” and also because “these parties [which are being targeted] were all perceived as pro-war. They all made pro-war statements”.
Khan is repeatedly being compared to President Barack Obama, whose own success in American election is owed to harnessing the energies of younger activists via social and traditional media when huge odds were stacked against him. Through his message of hope, Obama was able to recruit tens of thousands of young and first time voters to his cause and romped home with victory. If that phenomenon is repeated in Pakistan on 11th May and the youngsters actually do vote for Imran Khan an inspire others to follow their lead, then Pakistan’s political landscape will change forever.
