PDM’s power show in Faisalabad a repeat of previous jalsas

Col (r) IkramUllah Khan

Having spent a long time in hibernation when people started speculating about its formal demise, PDM has finally come out alive with its leaders making their appearance in a public show after the PPP’s breakaway a few months back.

The Faisalabad power show of 16 October 2021 held exactly one year after the PDM’s maiden jalsa that was held in Gujranwala on 16 October 2020 shortly after it was formed in September 2020, turned out to be an unimpressive show of power with the same old hackneyed outpourings carrying a mere hollow political rhetoric meant for mere public consumption.

On 16 October 2021, these political actors took to the stage turn by turn making their empty assertions known to the public with Maryam Safdar appearing on the stage eulogizing her father’s self-deluding matchless political acumen and chivalrous feats and giving vent to her abiding spleen against Imran Khan and her favourite target, i.e. “the establishment”  in the same breath in a vain attempt to elicit public sympathy, but ironically, landing herself in an awkward situation that left her wide open to an intense public scoff. Deludingly enough, she rates herself to be a leader of outstanding qualities but fails to appreciate that she falls short of even the basic qualities which are considered to be the sine qua non for a successful political leader. At best, she can be termed as a great crowd puller that she does quite successfully by playing to the gallery and casting her magic spell on the audience.

In their addresses, the leaders of the PDM’s constituent parties fired a volley of tirade against Imran Khan making him the main butt of their trenchant criticism, rightly accusing him of hoodwinking the naïve and credulous masses and subjecting them to unprecedented inflation due to his myopic economic policies devoid of professional input. The speakers pointed out that repeated increase in petrol, electricity and gas prices in a row has raised their prices to a level unseen before.  It has made the cost of living unmanageable thereby making it difficult for the people with even reasonable income to manage two square meal a day let alone those who are already living a wretched existence below the poverty line.

The speakers also accused him of failing in fulfilling the promises made to the people during the 2018 election campaigns and beating the drum of corruption and money-laundering incessantly without even a single case proved against those accused of the crime. Maryam Safdar and Fazalur Rahman were quite vocal in their accusation that the premier state institutions were made controversial citing the most recent unnecessary brawl over the appointment of DG ISI as a case in point. 

However, the verbal slings thrown at the establishment by PDM’s top leadership this time around carried a softer tone for understandable reasons. But despite all the seemingly less intense posture recently adopted by PML-N leadership vis-a-vis the state institutions, its perennial policy towards the establishment remains unchanged as the famous English expression “a leopard can’t change its spots” holds true in this case.

As for Fazalur Rahman, he is a shrewd politician and a political guru in the true sense of the word. Having lost the election from his parent constituency for the first time in his political life, he very craftily managed to devise a strategy to keep himself politically alive and relevant through PDM which he has done quite successfully. He is the only politician who is expert in feeling the public pulse and knows how to swim with the tide.

The centrifugal forces forming a band of ragtag political renegades, finding a suitable niche for themselves in the PDM spoke their heart out giving vent to their fury against the government and the state institutions making their evil designs known in front of the captive audience.

As for the waning popularity of Imran Khan, who ascended to the thorny throne with a tall claim to establish Riyasat-e-Madina, he has badly exposed himself before friends and foes alike due to his hollow promises and bad governance. He erroneously thought that he  would be able to overcome the insurmountable challenges and translate his desire into action by mere assertions. His capricious mood swing and erratic behaviour are beginning to get him down. He has a scant realization that people are groaning under the crushing inflation and he finds solace in the “sab achha” (all ok) reports of the obsequious elements encircling him all the time. To add insult to injury, these unscrupulous band of flatterers surrounding him appear in TV talk shows brazenly defending his failed policies and justifying the skyrocketing prices of petroleum, gas and electricity having a snowballing effect on the prices of commodities of daily use. His whimsical and faulty economic policies have failed to address the economic woes of the people further pushing the country towards economic debacle; and he is busy in changing his finance ministers more frequently than one changes his shoes.

Having said that, it’s painfully observed that the opposition leaders feel content with enumerating a catalogue of issues confronting the public without suggesting solutions. They think they have done their duty by pinpointing the problems but fail to understand that by merely identifying the problems without suggesting matching solutions to fix them is just like the case of a doctor who diagnoses the disease of his patient but fails to prescribe medicines for him that could rid him of the disease. Moreover, after agitating the minds of the gullible public through political gimmicks and having failed to muster their support, these political inciters sneakily crawl back into their shell only to appear for another show.