News Source: The News
Writer: Nimra Afzal
Being the social media and the shared voice of the people, I come up with about eight to ten on-record incidents daily that take place in Pakistan— showing how candidates who were elected to fix their designated localities, disappointed the people once they were given the authority.
While a few standard journalists have been contemplating over Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) versus Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) ahead of the upcoming election— pondering whether the hype is more favorable of ‘a newer risk’ or ‘a safer poison’, news analysts on the other hand, opine that the popular debate rather tends to be of how different the forthcoming polls are from the general election back in 2013.
What did the candidates fear about, how tough were their rivals, how much dirt did the political parties have to spill on their competitors to overtake their standpoint, how different would it be as an independent candidate instead of going with a party ticket— and considering how key leaders are splitting from parties months before the general elections, not to forget the rush of turncoats; there is more to their challenges. Let’s put as, I am the social media and I suppose the electioneers may need to fear me.
I may seem as an emerging threat. One point being due to the online extremism— which isn’t a one-way broadcast anymore that get on from producer to consumer, but stirs contemporary radicalization because of the high levels of online social interaction. People remain adequately conscious when it comes to political events here. They may lack absolute awareness but they have been bearing a lot and have begun to vent out their anger, particularly against electioneers who have wronged them and eventually led them to react offensively off the line.
There was no escape for Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan leader Dr. Farooq Sattar when disgruntled voters bombarded him with complaints as he was leaving from a mosque last week. There is always hope for forgiveness but it appears the people would not take soon to forget how they used to be harassed for animal hides on Eid days.
If we speak of the people of Dera Ghazi Khan, people who witnessed negligence of PML-N’s Sardar Jamal Laghari since elections 2013, grilled the politician over his performance in the neglected town of Punjab, and thwarted his attempt to woo voters nearly a month before the general election. PTI leader Arif Alvi and PPP’s face Murad Ali Shah found their selves in similar situations last week. The idea of walking away from dissatisfied voters, who question them of what they have done for the people, may be an instant escape— but isn’t the public then gripping them tighter on digital media.
They may be just common people, but they are common people backed with the digital media and that is an enough threat for the electioneers.
It is true that the earlier wave of corrupt leadership and dirty politics has suffocated the public to an extent that they’re prone to doubt that any person emerging with a convincing hype, may be carrying along a game.
My stance as the social media may be manipulative to many of you. You would more often come across small bits of information that portray political opponents as devils. The ease to pull the trigger at any time has obsessed social media people to react to their intuitions, insights, emotions, insecurities and the surrounding at the foremost.
There exists a fine line between speaking against the communal crisis and behaving as hardliners. Facebook and Google have already been quoted of bearing potentials to breed extremism. My people already blame me for the murder of Qandeel Baloch. Her cards fell weak against the instant trolling. It can be put that the raid is now on political instances.
However, there is also a lot people to be aware of— one being to realize when you’re beginning to become the hardliner.
