THIS is with reference to the letters by Syed Abid Hussain and Nadeem Akram, `PTI: new party, old faces` (Dec 29, 2011). Ideally speaking, the argument discussed in the letters is wonderful but impractical.

Who would disagree with the plain logic that Imran Khan must stick to his mantra of bringing the long cherished revolution through clean and new faces.

But reality tells us a different story: look back at the 15 long years of Imran`s politics, he lost all the elections, including the by elections.

If you talk about the masses, you see huge following of Imran Khan, but that does not transforminto the electoral front.

Why? The reason is that the established politicians have deep rooted influence in their respective constituencies. They manoeuvre elections to their advantage and they have become monsters. Since at least 1985 the same lot of politicians has contested seven elections. They are very well aware of the dynamics of biradris, clans, and the makhdoom factors.

They know how to manage polling booths: they close down the polling booth where their opponents appear to be strong and then compensate this loss by opening a new one where they are able to manage bogus votes.Then they manage the thing through transfers and postings of district administration officers to their advantage. They know precisely how to control polling agents and the management of transportation of voters.

They are ready tospend huge money to win elections. They consider their constituencies as their fiefdoms. They proudly say it is `my constituency` instead of `our constituency` They are ready to go to any length to keep the fiefdom in their possession.

They focus their energies on uneducated or semi educated people.

Just take the example of the recently held electionthe governing body of the Pakistan Engineering Council. The total number of registered engineers was 100,000 and the votes cast were 18,000 all over the country. The turnout was a meagre 18 per cent. The PTI candidate for chairmanship could not win the election.

This is what the educated elite could offer.

Writers Hussain and Akram must ask themselves how many times they have voted in the last six or seven elections that were held in the country. And we all know the answer.

Imran Khan has finally become a pragmatic politician and though I am as idealistic as anyone else, I have closely watched theelections and I know the path that he was walking on previously would have taken him to nowhere.

We must not forget that we are currently stuck in a mess: if we want to clean it up in pursuit of ideal objectives, then we have to give huge sacrifices but I guess we are not prepared for that.

I am writing this letter on my laptop while lying in my luxurious bed covering myself with soft and warm blanket. I guess the writers must also have written with more or less the same luxury. It is, therefore, quite easy to criticise and dream for something unattainable just like many other drawingroom analysts havebeen doing.

If we are not ready to help the Khan, then we must compromise on something less ideal and patiently wait for gradual improvement of our lot.

SHEIKH SAEEDULLAH
Karachi