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RandiRona

Over the past few decades, a culture of randirona has emerged in Pakistani politics in general and Karachi politics in particular. Examples of randirona include:

  • Participation in elections and crying "rigging" once the results are not in your favor;
  • Winning elections, completing your term and putting up a melodramatic show at the end of tenure crying "I had no powers".

In my opinion, randirona is not a pragmatically viable approach because:

  • No one has been successful in changing results by doing randirona (results of 2013 and 2018 elections remained the same);
  • Randirona only causes more polarization and distrust of the system.

Randirona had the same net effect in 2013 and 2018 elections: half the country believed the elections were rigged, which resulted in political chaos. Distrust of the system has brought the turnout in Karachi, the largest city of Pakistan, to as low as 30%.

The actual recipe for political stability is not free-and-fair elections, but the perception of free-and-fair elections, which is driven by the politicians. If the other party won due to the rigging by establishment, clearly you tried but failed to allure the neutrals / khalai makhlook.

In this regard, we will have to take some positions that may seem counterintuitive because everyone is doing the opposite, but we have to take them anyway:

  1. Even if you see blatant rigging and tempered ballots with your own eyes, develop the courage to accept the result. There are plenty of other parties who will eventually cry rigging, so don't join the circus for the fear of missing out.
  2. While everyone is crying establishment-backed rigging and Ibrat Party isn't, a vacuum will be created, which we have to fill in with counter-propaganda that shifts blame to Afgandus (e.g. video of Afghanis casting bogus votes, pashto/dari audio leaks), just as India blames Pakistan for everything bad that happens there.
  3. If a court judgement is not in your favor, discrediting the judges only decreases trust of the system. Accept the judgement without too much noise, even if you have a video of judge receiving lifafa or an audio where the judge is offering to whore himself to the establishment.
  4. Either resign if you're powerless or accept your failures at the end of your tenure. Being a sore loser may win you some support in a country of losers, but has a negative net effect on the country's/city's political climate.
  5. If you do randirona during a protest, the targets of those protests actually get an orgasm from your crying. Make sure the protest is aimed at hurting the targets not gratifying them. E.g. if you protest against Sindh government against increased mobile snatchings, the licensed dacoits of PPP get the same feeling as drug-induced euphoria. If you want to really hurt them, demand Karachi province.