Nusrat Bhai's Problem with PTI

Nusrat Javed is a competent journalist; let’s give him that at least. He deserves it. On occasion, he might blunder and bluster just like somebody’s extremely old grandpa on family occasions, but still, his journalistic experience demands respect.

Nusrat’s saab’s  contention with PTI youth, or ‘trolls’ as he and other respectable liberals (present  almost exclusively on Twitter) , prefer to call them , is well known, well observed and has been the subject matter of much casual chit chats, face to face verbal jousting and war of comments on social networks. As a part of the generation that is gradually disappearing, his discomfiture with the social network active youth is understandable. He is slow to catch up on the trend, but social media is now gradually playing an important role in Pakistani politics with its ability to bring on the table, youth (though mostly from urban areas) and their newfound love for political activism. And with youth, well, you get occasional hot heads, cyber bullies, overzealous preachers and passionate expounders of conspiracy theories. It is a whole new world for the people of old electronic and print media and a one to which they now have to get used to. But one has to understand the undercurrents of the rising tide of participation by Pakistani youth in politics.

Youth have played a significant part in world politics. Throughout history, their participation is synonymous with dramatic changes or to be more fair, the various revolutionary leaders throughout history have utilized the services of young people to change the course of history. It has been seen that youth can get exploited and manipulated for both good and nefarious purposes. Muhammad Ali Jinnah used the Muslim youth of the sub continent to good success for the Pakistan Movement, but there have been instances where youth were used for more sinister purposes like the Nazification of Germany or the Cultural Revolution in China and yes it is shameful that the Taliban have proven more successful in attracting young people than our mainstream national parties, and that is the reality. But as you might observe these days, the reserves of undecided and politically inactive youth are being tapped by political parties throughout the world.  With the voluntary and involuntary inclusion of youth in political and social discussions, the rules of discussion and debate are changing and which many politicians and journalists -including Nusrat Javed- are finding hard to come to terms with.

In comparison to other parties, PTI seems to have had a reasonable success with youth and parallels with Obama’s 2008-election strategy can be justifiably drawn. Their crafty exploitation of the Messiah Syndrome in the masses and the use of youth in spreading their message are two similarities that glaringly stand out.

But aside from all this, both the Democrats in USA and PTI in Pakistan have realized the importance of youth in politics. It was the youth that toppled the Shah’s regime in Iran and the despotic governments of Ben Ali in Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. The power of youth thus cannot be under estimated.

But what happens in most cases is that the young people who have been in the fore forefront of movements and election campaigns get disillusioned by the policies of their leaders, like this year, Obama faces an uphill battle against the rising number of youth non-participants in elections, the same youth that so fervently voted for him the 2008 elections are now are little unsure about him. This is a case study from heaven for PTI and it should learn something from this.

But we must ask that what leads these ‘trolls’ to ridicule and viciously attack their opponents online, isn’t that a trait that is found in the Taliban?  I.e. you disagree with us we attack you. In my opinion it is the constant betrayal and continuous exploitation by politicians that drives these young people to brutally attack differing opinions because they seem to have pinned hopes to a cause or a personality in which they have fervently come to believe. Every religious, secular and violent movement in the past has been led by these same young zealots who blindly follow their leader and more often than not these are the same people who are the most disenchanted at the end of each revolution, because no revolution in this world has seen a happy ending for the youth and Nusrat saab as an avid reader of history might know this.