I've noticed there's a lot of patholigcal hatred in Pakistan towards Imran Khan from his critics mostly ethnonationalists and people on the far left. My cousin a 30-something feminist Nawaz Sharif supporter just said she hates Prime Minister Khan so much that she wishes he dies and a lot of her self-proclaiemd feminist friends in Pakistan share her views. I'm honestly so disgusted, I've never hated a person so much to wish them dead and it's funny they only want him dead because he's been cracking down against corrupt feudal warlords like Sharif and Zardari that have ruled over Pakistan for decades.
I don't know how someone can rationalize their hatred for someone especially someone like Imran Khan who's done so much for Pakistan as a philanthropist, activist, statesman and professional sportsman. It's like people are afraid that he's going to end the current status quo in Pakistan that's been going on for decades.
Echo chambers basically. The feminist movement in Pakistan is run by a grand total of 300-400 Twitter accounts, a Facebook group, some on-campus cliques here and there, and certain influencers that sit in powerful positions. This regurgitation of opinions within these spaces increases the intensity of the emotion every time it resurfaces and if you happen to be someone who is part of these places and in this case your cousin, the final outcome will definitely be an intense outpour of whatever that's downloaded nonstop into your brain.
The problem, however, is much deeper and much worse than what we see it on the surface.
The main voices in these echo chambers are direct beneficiaries of tyranny and corruption and they don't like to be challenged. This tiered echo chamber can roughly be explained as
1. The trendsetters: The people in this tier try to identify themselves as opinion makers or kingmakers. These come in many forms but mostly mask as independent journalists - a sacred profession must I add - for which they neither have the qualification nor the will, agents of change, & other social influencers. These people live luxurious lives and are capitalist to the bone but try to pose as the champions of common people. They also create and peddle a narrative that sells in certain quarters of our society but their main target area is outside the ideological borders of Pakistan. This is what makes them money and brings all the dollars to the backyard. They are also guns for hire and anyone and everyone can buy their principles at a throw of a few morsels.
2. The educated elites: The other few are diaspora desis who again use privilege to reach positions that they do not belong to and hence have to go the extra mile to justify their shortcomings through constant propaganda. An example of that is the daughter of an unelected minister who happens to be a remnant of our feudal system. This subset also includes people who have 'escaped' Pakistan or chosen to live in 'exile' because their fundamental rights are being harmed. They will talk about freedom of speech all the time but the moment someone questions them, that's it, that's where the line is drawn by them.
3. The followers: Then the third tier is of people who are influenced by these main voices. These are the vulnerable ones and they are failed by our society and the unjust system that we have created as a whole. Women in Pakistan have genuine issues and nothing has been done to alleviate this suffering for 75 or so years. Not just women, there are other vulnerable minorities that have been wronged and continue to be wronged but there's no one that listens to them. These impressionable minds are pulled in the quagmire through constant propaganda and bitter realities around them. These are expendable and no one really cares about them from the higher tiers and they really move up the tiers. These are the foot soldiers where people like you and me actually end up.
Now coming on to the fact that why the need for the hatred for a certain person/system is mandatory for the status quo mentioned above to function.
IK is an easy target to hate because he has and will always remain a polarizing figure. His becoming a politician made the world see the parts of his personality that previously were hidden away from the limelight & some in power immediately realized that he can become the hero of the masses. To suppress his rise, they needed to create a villain out of him and hence the campaign against him started.
The first campaign was easy to orchestrate, a playboy backed by Jewish lobby having a daughter out of wedlock and hey presto, done. This campaign took off and IK's popularity as a sports star took a massive dent and he was marginalized in politics with ease. I remember as a kid how my Nawaz Sharif supporter dad was ecstatic when IK's party didn't even win a single seat in the general election because IK was a 'yahoodi saazish' started by Benazir to harm the Islam loving Nawaz who was carrying on General Zia's mission.
The game, set, match, right? No.
The man just didn't give up and continued his political career instead of giving up and moving to London with Jemima and doing commentary on cricket. Whatever his naysayers hit him with, IK responded back with double the force. Instead of getting subdued, he rose up stronger and stronger as his voter base started to come of age and the man himself started to learn the tricks of the trade.
The time was also favorable for him as people were getting educated, media was becoming mainstream, and political discussions were no longer just an afterthought in press clubs or tea stalls and PTV wasn't the only channel in the country anymore. The shift from 9:00 pm state propaganda to 24/7 news and political discussions round the clock created a new paradigm in politics. While traditional politicians were slow at understanding the dynamics, IK caught the surf and his popularity soared.
His popularity peaked in 2013 and if that election was fully fair, he might have had a bigger share in the power pie then than what he got.
What it did was, it also shook up the power dealers and wheelers. In order to survive, they had to adapt too, and adapt they did. That's where the second wave against IK popped up. The buzzwords changed, and the rhetoric was reset.
Now, it wasn't enough to just call him a yahoodi agent, that "manjan" wasn't selling anymore. So the playbook was rewritten and the result is all these forums and think-tanks who now commentate on our politics every day. These people needed to write new narratives, "is he really a born-again Muslim now or if that's just a stunt", "how big a pawn of the establishment he is", "who is supplying him all this cocaine" etc. This time the hatred had a different target audience, the educated elite and not just the ordinary uncle sitting in the back of a hairdresser declaring America to be behind every terrible thing.
The civil leadership also knew that once he is in power, his popularity will decline automatically. Pakistan by default is a difficult country to rule and there will be countless failures on the way. While the opposition knew that popularity in the general public will take a hit, they had to control the narrative and hence a lot of opinion makers were bought. I wouldn't say their services were acquired, they were just bought off. The hate against him now is systemic, almost intelligent, and builds gradually on facts/fallacies/and equivalences in such a manner that you are bound to think in paradoxes and hence always are confused.
An example would be the corona case study: while everyone was adamant that IK's wrong, no one has actually come up and appreciated him after the first wave has been less damaging to Pakistan than it was expected. I shudder at the forecasts that were flying, the news channels harking about curfews, and everyone bar IK standing firm in the face of that catastrophe.
Lastly, there is no left in Pakistan. It's either the religious bigots hungry for power or the not so religious bigots hungry for power.
Take the example of the so-called comrades in Pakistan who are willing to have their pie, and also the other person's pie without any remorse. They sit and recite Faiz's "jis dhajj say koi maqtal ko gaya" in their comfortable drawing rooms in DHA's and Clifton avenues dressed up in branded clothes.
Then there's Nawaz's son in law who is a known Ahmedi hater, a bigot who may have led to the deaths of many Ahmedi people yet he's the champion of the so-called left now. Leaders in their party have attacked Benazir, called her "peeli taxi" and other derogatory terms that I cannot even write on this forum, and these are the things that have made entire generations of men hate women and incited violence against already marginalized women but now his uneducated daughter is all of a sudden Joan of (d)ark and the breaker of chains.
I don't even want to talk about Bhutto and his legacy of keeping an entire population hostage to a name.
I hope. wish, and pray to see these dynasties crumble to dust. I don't want these people to even become footnotes in our history, forgotten like Yahya Khan and his ilk. Hopefully, there will be some positive change for the poor who continue to suffer like ants under the feet of these drunk in power elephants.
Hopefully, one day your cousin will also understand to hate the oppressor, no matter who they are.
