Re: Why Karachi Jalsa is a Game Changer?
Karachi Jalsa proved that City of Death for the media is still the City of Life and Hope.
Looking beyond PTI, that jalsa for me on a personal level, beautifully personified the resilience and promise of Karachi. It unveiled the face of Karachi we sadly don’t get to see in the media. I was gobsmacked when I saw that absolutely massive and gloriously charged up crowd. The diversity, the energy and the sense of celebration and optimism was just so surreal. It was magnificent. Can you believe that this massive crowd gathered to show support to an ‘outside’ party despite the increasing rate broad day gunning down of political workers, activists and supporters on daily basis? Those people did not fear about making their political affiliation known. They did not care about committing political blasphemy. They did not care about upsetting the local mafias. They did not care about any stereotypes. They did not care being sidelined in their own community. They were simply fearless.
You cannot help but wonder that how come a City which is tragically divided on several ethnic, sectarian, political and economic lines managed to raise such a diverse and fearless crowd to celebrate a historic movement? The Karachi jalsa was coming together of communities. It was a cultural touchpoint. It was a start of a mutual yearning for change.
The crowd displayed a mosh pit of unity between people belonging to different ethnicity, class, faith and gender. I really feel that Karachi jalsa once again reinforced PTI’s position as truly national party. However, it is indeed true that Karachi is the most neglected subject in PTI’s politics, the party lacks organisational structure, strong local leadership, and grass root activism to promote PTI’s message. Imran cannot just hop in and out of that City whenever he feels like, and do open local campaigning. But considering all these factors and also considering the blatant propaganda and smear campaign against Imran by status quo parties and print media, PTI still managed to pull a game changing crowd in Karachi on three days notice. It is simply incredible. But I would still reserve the final round of applause for the people of Karachi.
With the permission of Bahai. IK even can not enter Karachi if Bhai opposes it. Remember welcome of ex. CJ Ch Iftekhar on 12 May 2007. He even could not come out from air port. Tons of people were killed by mqm.