Pakistan: People's Politics | Teen Ink

Pakistan: People's Politics

March 28, 2024
By Zohreen BRONZE, Lahore, Other
Zohreen BRONZE, Lahore, Other
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

The orchestrated maneuvering of the military and certain people in power suggested perfection. Yet, amidst this arranged structure, one crucial component remained neglected: the voices and needs of the Pakistani people. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan spent the election campaign behind bars, with his voting symbol, the infamous cricket bat taken from him. This left him helpless.
    Until he wasn't, with the assistance of his young social media marketing team, he utilized Artificial Intelligence to replicate his voice and produced a speech. His team has been rallying his supporters for many months, doing their best to ensure the people's vote goes to Imran Khan. Since his bat symbol was removed, his social media team listed the independent candidates supporting PTI (Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaaf the party he represented ) on various platforms making it available to people everywhere. 

    Imran Khan was already a huge public figure and had a positive reputation with the youth of Pakistan. Social media assisted in spreading the news of Imran’s prior accomplishments, and the injustices being done against him. The recall of his aid to the underprivileged, and more significantly his unconstitutional imprisonment based on frivolous cases incited voters to take action.
  The announcement of the election results faced notable delays spanning nearly three days. The Internet was shut down, and so were many people's voices. This outcome was already expected by civilians and experts, as it was the result of the military and intelligence agencies' attempt to dominate the narrative. Pakistanis believed the government was wasting money in the elections, as the military had already selected their preferred leader, with one political analyst claiming, “This election was hardly an election, I think the right word for this was a predetermined selection” (Moeed Pirzada 2024). 

  Pakistanis everywhere took to social media to express their concerns, with “#ElectionResults2024” trending on X with over 31k posts, and #Martial Law trending with over 5.6k posts. Independent members in support of Imran Khan uploaded forms showing the authentic number of votes they received. Soon enough this issue attracted global attention from news organizations including Al Jazeera, The New York Times, the BBC, etc. Millions of Pakistanis expressed their frustration over the injustices being done against Imran Khan. The people's exasperation was at an all-time high.
   The February 8th election results brought the unexpected. The independent candidates allied with former Prime Minister Imran Khan won 97 out of 265 seats in the National Assembly. This was not just a vote in favor of PTI, this was a vote against the establishment, and the military who attempted to pull the strings of democracy. Numbers by the Pakistani government show a 48% voter turnout, representing approximately 60.6 million. These figures showed the impact of the widespread social media presence.

  Social media gave people a voice, a voice not given by the government, and a voice that was stripped by the military. The vanquished voters rose to the challenge and used technology and the power of social media to outclass them all.  


The author's comments:

This essay was submitted by me to the Harvard Crimson Global Essay Competition in 2024


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