Should we Dance about it?

We have been listening about the intra party elections that were held in one of the parties out of the several that are registered with the Election Commission of Pakistan. It is strange that the party boasted its election campaign as something that was never heard of in the history of the country and scores of TV ads and campaigns on Social Media and mainstream media were seen. Billions were spent on the advertisements that showed some people living in some suburbs of the country who were made presidents of certain Union Councils. Amazingly, media remained silent on the matter as it was being served with millions of rupees for their airtime in the peak hours by the said party.

Nothing could be further from the truth. It is a blatant lie that PTI is the only party in the country that had an election held within its ranks because it is impossible to get an election symbol from the Election Commission of Pakistan unless and until a party does not get the party elections held. Jamat-e-Islami is famous for having conducted the intra party elections for years and is lauded by even its worst critics for that. When countered with this fact, the trolls of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf would tell you that they are a small party and theirs is the only “mainstream” party to have achieved this hallmark. God knows what makes them wonder that they are a mainstream party with having only one seat in the seventeen years of existence in the National Assembly and that too with the help of Pervez Musharraf in 2002.

But coming back to the intra party elections, the very claim that PTI is the only party in Pakistan to have conducted them is misleading as they already agree that Jamat-e-Islami conducts them on regular basis. Now let me tell you about the intra party elections that are held in the actual mainstream party Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz). It was a long exercise that PMLN had to go through and thousands of party workers participated from all parts of the country in these elections. It took them some eighteen months to conduct the entire party elections and choose all the leadership from bottom to the top. They had to face the same problems as PTI had to face as there were defections from the party, people got angry with the leadership, there were allegations of favoritism and so on and so forth but the fact is that they were held.

There were some serious issues that the party had to face in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwah. Some of the main leaders of the party were blamed and some expressed serious reservations as well. Even veteran PML-N leader from Sindh Ghous Ali Shah expressed displeasure with some leaders within the party. SarAnjam Khan in KPK was unhappy with some things and had developed distances with the leadership but nothing held the PML (N) back from holding the elections. In the end, Nawaz Sharif, as expected, got elected as the President of Pakistan Muslim League (N) just like Imran Khan got elected as the leader of his party i.e. unopposed.

It is a mistake on PMLN’s part that it did not highlight the intra-party elections but then again, who knew it was something that should be celebrated in a fashion that is not seen even when parties win general elections. It was just a normal thing, like everyone breathes or drinks water or anything that is natural. Yes, it was something special for PTI, no doubt, because in seventeen years of its political life, it was the first time they had had an elections in their party. It was natural for them to be jubilant because they were being oppressed for so long but telling others that they are superior for having conducted an election in their party is not only a false claim but also a lie that can be caught without doing any hard work. Just Google PMLN intra-party elections and you can find the results. What makes people dance about it?