Thread by @AutoVader

Why is it that we #Pakistanis become so beholden to mere mortals? Every hero we have had, has disappointed us, yet we keep repeating the same pattern over and over again, expecting different results. #Bhutto was once a messiah for West Pakistanis. They loved him so much 1/n

that in the 1970 elections Awami League didn't win a single seat in West #Pakistan. How did that love affair turn out? A broken country and despotic civilian dictator who runied all economic progress of the 60s, the affects of which we still suffer from. 2/n

Then there emerged an entire section of society which still thinks Zia was mard-e-momin. Smh. Next BB, then Nawaz. Bloodly hell still Nawaz! Then his daughter. FFS. Still can't blv how Iftikhar Ch became an overnight hero. Abdul Qadir Khan, nuclear weapons smuggler. 3/n

We have this weird tendency to put men and women on pedestals and engage in hero worship. When you read history about men like Attaturk, Ho Chi Minh, Mao, Lenin, Lee Kaun Yew, Mahathir, our so-called heroes are nothing compared to these intellectual giants. 4/n

Each one of them helped create a system that lasted well beyond them. Their ideas and actions are still driving an impact in the world today. What have our heroes offered us, ever? The more adulation and praise we shower on our heroes the bigger flops they turn out to be.5/n

You know where I am about to go here. An entire cross-section of #Pakistanis have thrown their lot with @ImranKhanPTI. I don't disagree with their choice. There are v sensible people in #PTI but there are others - most I would say - who are completely 6/n

intolerant to anything critical of #IK and #PTI. Facism is the right term to describe this behavior. Even writing this thread I am aware I am poking the bear. Despite everything #IK says about establishment, when he came to power, what did he really do? Did he have a plan? 7/n

At least an economic one? His Fiance Minister @Asad_Umar turned out to be a disaster. He caved in to pressure from the mullahs to remove @AtifRMian from the economic advisory council, that led to the collapse of the whole council. He appointed Buzdar the CM of a province 8/n

with over 100m people, right after the province had a really effective administrator (save the hate I am not pro Shehbaz). Did IK or PTI have any ideology to act upon when he came to power? No. Anti-corruption mantra is NOT an ideology. Social, economic, trade, education, 9/n

health, taxation, land reforms, wealth creation, income inequality, social mobility are just some issues #PTI had no strategy for. The result was a haphazard set of initiatives which looked good individually but collectively amounted to no real change. 10/n

"Strategy is very unPakistani," said a Western diplomat once, "you just kick the can down the road and hope it lands in the right place". This has been the way every single govt, military or civil, has run the country in 70 years and this is exactly how #IK ran his. 11/n

Whatever direction he points his followers in, everyone starts off without even questioning whether that is the right approach or not. Even now there is no plan for what happens AFTER IK comes back to power. What is it that people really want? They don't know. All they know 12/n

is that there is a promised land called #NayaPakistan where IK will take them. It's all good for solganeering, but what does it mean in real life? How will our lives be different? What pain points will we be able to resolve? No one knows and no one questions. 13/n

Because to question means one has to think and thinking is hard. So the majority has outsourced their thinking to people like IK, Maryam, Bilawal, Nawaz, Monis, and some to #ISPR. FFS. It's a slow-mo train wreck 70 years in the making and it's not changing any time soon. 14/14