In my own way I had the 18th February elections on my mind, as I was buying fruit in Saddar, selecting from a range of pushcarts on Sunday afternoon, with Karachi's winter still carrying some bite.
Seasonal fruit, the good-looking, healthy oranges were in splendid variety, and buoyant Karachiites were buying, bargaining. There was an unquestionable cheer in the air, despite the prices.
This is something I do not understand at times. I bought some apples also, and felt good about the deals. I called a friend, Ghazanfar Habib, and interrupted his afternoon leisure (siesta?) and asked him whether he would like some fruit, apples and grapefruit, precisely, he had no choice and he agreed.!
Elated, I told the friendly hawker to give me two kilos of apples and weigh them separately. He began doing so, but was putting some rotten apples into the bag. Those are like bogus votes I remarked naughtily, but seriously, and he understood immediately what I was saying. He was young and appeared intelligent and from our brief conversation about elections and bogus votes, it was evident that he was knowledgeable enough about the politics of our present times.
I kept on removing the less healthy apples and he kept doing his bit, saying that I was free to reject the ones I wanted to. I added that it was as if I was someone from the law enforcing agencies or the Election Commission weeding out the bogus votes (rotten apples really). He laughed. Other hawkers within hearing range were also tuned in.
I made a short impromptu speech saying that while they were, in the elections next week, free to cast their votes for which-so-ever they wished to, they should not cast bogus votes. I placed heavy emphasis on bogus votes, but we were all laughing generally. I guess with fruit being a common denominator, laughter comes easy.
But bogus votes are no laughing matter. It can make or undo the polls. It is an integral theme for the general elections - and allegations of pre-poll rigging are already so many that it could all turn out to be a nightmare, if fears about what can happen come true.
With elections now only five days to go, and with an election mood that is very mild, moderate and which has been somewhat non-existent when compared to some of the previous elections that one has in mind. It is natural that memories of the December 1970 and the March 1977 come alive, especially with regard to the pre-poll mood. Obviously the outcome of those polls are also very much within focus, for those of us who have lived through those days.
One does not seek to compare, but it is natural that one recalls the December 1970 polls, described as the fairest and most transparent polls ever held in the country. And the most peaceful too. I was a reporter in The Leader (daily) in Karachi, and covered the polls, interviewing the leaders, the candidates, doing mood pieces, focusing on the scenes that the city presented. Day or night, there was little or no fear, and the election fever was high, intense, though moving around the city was fairly smooth. But it was a grim, decisive elections and what happened thereafter steered the country or made it drift towards the tragedy of East Pakistan.
I take this occasion to share my own deep disappointment as it deprived me of the chance to have ever gone to East Pakistan. I had wanted eagerly to visit that province, but within weeks of my having completed my Master's in English at the Karachi University (July 1968) there began a nation-wide movement against President Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan, which continued to climax until he had to quit.
The general election in 1970 came after the 1965 election. After December 1970, the country spent the entire year, until December 16, 1971, undergoing an agony and trauma that has left wounds unhealed even now. I was 23 when the elections were held, and I recollect the optimism, and the hope that we had at that time.
Seven years later came the March 1977 elections, and the government of Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto held this General Election. The opposition from the platform of the Pakistan National Alliance rejected the results and there began a countrywide agitation, protest and violence as well. One does remember all that, but one also recollects the huge public meetings, large corner meetings and other campaign occasions that were held all over the city. There was such an overwhelming sense of safety and security that families went to these political gatherings without inhibitions. And January and February 1977 generated political interest, concern and anger also. Yet there was a degree of security that seems so strange, given the insecurity that characterizes next week's elections.
But it is not just insecurity that hits one when you look at the electioneering that has been going on ever since it began. There has been apathy and nonchalance, generally speaking, and some cynical citizens believe that the elections are more in the TV channels than anywhere else. There is a fear that the voter turn out will be lower than in the previous elections, and that an election that is perceived as the most critical ever in the nation's history will suffer qualitatively, as a consequence. And the consequences of this low voter turn out could be detrimental to national interest, to say the least.
Of course, there are eloquent optimists who have faith that all is well, and that all will be well, that the surveys and opinion polls are unreliable and flawed, that there are wheels within wheels. These lobbies and corridors of power and decision making, believe that the voter turn-out will be higher than normal, and that the government's steps to control law and order will prove to be effective, successful. The army has been deployed in sensitive areas all over the country.
What of the housewife's perception of what is happening? It would perhaps vary from city to city, and from urban to rural, I presume. But I have noticed that housewives and families are keeping a vigilant eye on their reserves of non-perishable foodstuffs at home. It is that kind of insecurity that is being felt in between the lines.
For all the doomsday scenarios that are being discussed, perhaps it is wiser to find hope and optimism in the current pre-poll situation, argues a friend very strongly. There is no option but to do that, he adds seriously. He does not want to hear of the 1970 and 1977 election meetings that I went to. Or what happened then.
Finally, let me sign off with a quote from Alexis de Tocqueville which reads as "When the people rule, they must be rendered happy, or they will over-turn the state." PS: Once again strongly recommended for 18th February 2008: Cast your vote, wherever.