As I pack my bags for the Pakistan elections, I pack a lot of advice too — from my family to the neighbours, to the immigration official who stamps my passport — they all say pretty much the same thing: 'Don't go!'
Actually the immigration official says much more. "It's a country in turmoil," he tells me angrily. "And it's not our problem. Let them sort out their own elections, why do you need to go?" I am grateful for his concern, but I am not taking the advice — just as we would go if we were sent on an assignment to cover the elections in the Bahamas (no, not hinting.... :)) so too my cameraman and I will go to Lahore.
Thin Convoys, Thinner Crowds
In a sense, the intense worry about security is having an unusual effect — a return to grassroots democracy. In Lahore, and other places, the days of big rallies seem to be over. Candidates say even when they do organise big events and big leaders come to address people, they get very thin crowds.
And if the people can't come to the leaders — the answer is for the leaders to go to the people — home to home. One candidate we followed in Lahore said all his campaign strategies have changed in this election.
He doesn't move with a large group of supporters, only a few key ones, and he holds dozens of meetings of 20-40 people at street corners.
In earlier elections, he says, it was about contacting the maximum number of people with 2-3 big rallies with thousands of people a day. Now, it's really about making sure your own supporters aren't too scared to come out and vote on February 18.
Next: The Suicide Bomber Scare
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The Suicide Bomber Scare
Even the really big leaders like Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari are holding very few mammoth rallies. I get into one of them at Faislabad, but only just. To get into the special enclosures, one needs a special pass and your name on a list. The security itself is stricter than anything I have seen — and the crowds more subdued.
None of the leaders arrive together — the massive 100-car convoys are now a thing of the past. And Zardari's security seems to largely consist of private commandos.
The leadership of the party is put on a stage that is entirely protected by bulletproof glass. Many of us in the media are carrying or wearing bulletproof jackets.
The press itself is kept in an enclosure far from the main dais — and contained quite literally on top of a massive shipping container, more than a floor high. The ladder we are using to climb up and down soon breaks under the weight of journalists going up and down, and I wonder what is going to happen if panic does break out.
For safety, I and my cameraman decide to stay on the ground. And then suddenly there is a loud buzz — police sources say they fear a three-man suicide squad has entered the grounds, and they are looking for a man in a turban amongst them.
After a few scuffles with the crowds, the search is called off. Through it all, I am amazed by how quiet everyone is about the possible danger. It's a country now enured to violence in a way we once saw in J&K.
Next: Kids Who Talk About Bombs
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Kids Who Talk About Bombs
I see more evidence of that in a TV programme I watch on one of my first mornings here. A nice avuncular anchor is sitting amidst a dozen children. It seems like a nice Mr Roger's type show — until I listen in. And I am startled — they are discussing suicide bombs! "How do you feel when you hear of an attack," Mr Pakistani Rogers asks. "Very bad," reply the children in unison in Urdu.
He then goes on to discuss disturbing images and what the kids should do if they see an unidentified object. A sad sign of our times made more gruesome by Benazir Bhutto's assertion in her book that one of the plans was to kill her with a suicide bomb baby.
Benazir recounts how on the fateful day she returned to Karachi- a man kept trying to hand her his infant. The security personnel kept pushing him back- eventually she says she had got inside her car just as he was able to pass the baby on- coinciding with the first blast on her.
Passing Phase?
Eventually though, the sense is that this too will pass. Most people I speak to believe the elections will unseat the pro-Musharraf PML-Q, and that things will get better soon.
What also seems clear is that there will be another general election in the not too distant future. One in which all the main characters, the chief dramatis personae, the men who hold the key to Pakistan's future will actually run for election as well.
Might be fun to see a real contest with Nawaz Sharif, Zardari- and yes, even Musharraf, Ifthikhar Chaudhury, and Imran Khan all in the fray!
Will have more from the road to Pakistani elections soon, watch this space!
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