Political Stars

I am a great fan of Imran Khan, not because of his cricket but because of his strength of character, bravery and ideology of Islam. After Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, he has shown the greatest guts so far in the political scenario of Pakistan. I salute him for just being there for us.

I voted for PTI in the elections of 2013. My vote happened to be registered in Lahore, and I actually made the effort of travelling from Islamabad to Lahore to cast my vote, without any persuasion from any political agent and at my own expense. I was not the only one to do so. When I reached Lahore, I met other relatives who had also travelled to Lahore, just to cast their vote. Again, it was without any persuasion from any political agent and at their own expense. We just so much wanted PTI to win.

When I reached my polling station, I looked around at the party camps and their banners. I saw the name of Shafqat Mahmood of PTI and I saw the name of Liaqat Baloch of JI. And I fell in a dilemma. Who should I vote for? They are both good persons…My dilemma lasted me a good two hours, till the very last second that I finally put my vote into the ballot box and the choice closed.

Then, I liked the way Nawaz Shareef, at the eve of his election victory, spoke words of forbearance and forgiveness for Imran Khan and his political slandering aimed at Nawaz Shareef himself. I really respect Nawaz Shareef for his high morality in this regard and do not like the way Imran Khan engaged in a political defaming bickering against Nawaz Shareef. Whosoever suggested it to Imran Khan gave a disgusting suggestion and I am surprised at Imran Khan for getting involved in it given his tall moral stature.

Nawaz Shareef also suspended his election campaign for the day when Imran Khan fell from the makeshift elevator during his election campaign, three days before the big day of election. This is not the first time Nawaz Shareef has shown such morals and compassion. At the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Shareef announced to boycott the elections as a protest, but Asif Ali Zardari convinced him to go ahead since PPP was not backing down from elections despite the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

But the best of Nawaz Shareef has come just now. He has been doing his best to avoid a military operation against the Taliban in North-West Waziristan. When matters were not progressing forward, he suddenly reached Bani Gala, the home of Imran Khan, without any political protocol, to consult and discuss with Imran Khan as to how to move forward towards peace with Taliban. Well done, Nawaz Shareef!

And a question comes to my mind…why do we need to have political ‘parties’? Why cannot we simply have political personnel? As the personnel win one-by-one during elections, they form the ruling formation without any association with any political party. With political parties, we get stuck voting for the whole mixed lot within a party. Who to vote for? The leader at the top or choose between the candidates of the constituency? And we are bound to reject good candidates sitting in other political parties while voting for our favorite leader. In the current democratic system, we cannot pick and choose the best of the political lot.

Well, what do I do if I want to see Imran Khan as the Prime Minister of Pakistan and Nawaz Shareef as the President and Munawwar Hassan as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and so on?

Perhaps this is one more reason that Khilafah is better than Democracy, for Khilafah is person-oriented, rather than party-oriented. I wish that PTI, JI and PML-N collaborate with each other to come as close to the Khilafah model of political ruling as possible, at this point in time, in order to bring the political stars of Pakistan as close as possible and working together on the ruling political horizon of Pakistan.