From Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to my Kaptaan

Wednesday, 03 August 2011 21:06 - Last Updated Wednesday, 03 August 2011 21:20

byDr Arif Alvi

The crowd was pulsating as Bhutto continued to talk about Afro Asian Solidarity. Some of us raised anti-Ayub slogans. ZAB stopped us and said abhi naheen. He was into his third hour of his first public speech after ditching his mentor and the venue was Government College Lahore. Sixties was an era of healthy debate between left and the right. My mother insisted that I stop reading comics and novels and she thrust upon a young mindthe Dialogues of Plato . There is no better treatise on logical reasoning and I encourage this to be the first of all serious reading. I graduated to Maududi, Marx and Engels to understand socialism, religion, and about the exploitation of man by laissez faire capitalism. Iqbal fired up a passion and pride, but Bhuttos book the Myth of Independence brought in a nationalist perspective into my thinking and I followed him around though I disagreed with his political philosophy. People dislodged Ayub Khan and yours truly still carries a couple of bullets in his right arm as a memento of a peoples struggle gone awry, somewhat like Egypt of today with no real change. Our lot since then has gotten from worse to worst and beyond.

Forty years later now, I am travelling with Imran Khan from Lahore to Faisalabad for the PTI jalsa. His recent upsurge started from the Peshawar Dharna. We had great receptions on the way but managed to reach the venue in time because Khan always wants to be punctual. We are never able to keep our rallies in tact because he is in the lead car and exhorts the driver into a miserable state of panic, to hurry. Karachi was the watershed where people of all ethnicities joined in to make a statement that there is a breath of fresh air in this miserable political arena. Multan was a notch higher and we reached there in time from Lahore despite many receptions on the way.

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From Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to my Kaptaan

Wednesday, 03 August 2011 21:06 - Last Updated Wednesday, 03 August 2011 21:20

The journey to Faisalabad which is not more than a couple of hours from Lahore, had to be done in three because we were informed of four possible receptions at Sheikhupura, Manawala, Shahkot and Kherrianwala. We started at 2:30 PM planning to reach the Dhobi Ghat ground Faisalabad at six. But it was not to be and we reached at ten despite Khans urgings, as the crowd in every village on the way was aware that he was passing though and had come on the roads to welcome him. There was a sea of passionate people every mile of the road we travelled.

An old man almost got trampled making it to his side of the car and with tears in his eyes exhorted him to save Pakistan. Women pushed through the crowd of men, shouted greetings, and those who could not reach the car would give the traditional blessing from a distance. Youngsters danced passionately with a lot of dhol tamasha. Huge crowds would not allow us to move despite our portable speaker announcements that tens of thousands are waiting in Faisalabad. A rider on a beautiful white horse led a procession which came from a village far away from the GT road. A womens foot came under the wheel. I got down to make sure she wasnt seriously hurt and she shamed me saying that this will heal but her lifetime wish to shake the Kaptaans hand has been fulfilled.

Khan blamed me for the lack of organisation and discipline in the welcoming crowds. He said that these youth on hundreds of motorcycles in every town go slow and delay his movement. He said that our driving was poor. But it was evident that the paradigm shift and tsunami which he had been predicting had arrived. It was incredible to see the rising passion which gives a leader strength, but also puts on his shoulders a great burden of responsibility.

For me this was dj vu plus, from the Bhutto era. I welcomed Asghar Khan in Karachi in 67. Then I followed Bhutto though I disagreed with his pseudo leftist philosophy. I never forgave him his role in the break away of East Pakistan, but I imbibed the hope of his We-willmake-a-new-Pakistan speech after the debacle. I admired him for his brilliant link to the people and the dignity which he gave to the common man. What has been done to his legacy is nothing short of political rape.

Mr Mubasshir Hasan whom I met going to Lahore on the plane and others like Rafi Raza have dissected Bhuttos contradictions in their books and have concluded that he had two personalities which struggled within him, that of a Wadera and one of an Awami leader. He loved the latter but frequently succumbed to the compromises of the former. Khan has no schism. He is what you see is what you get. Let me sound the bugle that the tides have turned

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From Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to my Kaptaan

Wednesday, 03 August 2011 21:06 - Last Updated Wednesday, 03 August 2011 21:20

and for those who have seen or read about the Bhutto sailab this is an emerging tsunami, as the people have found a leader they can trust and who will deliver.

The writer is Secretary General of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and can be reached at drarifalvi@ gmail.com

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