Islamabad - Shahina Masood was running on her toes to complete her house chores and leave Lahore before 09:00am to avoid traffic rush and reach Islamabad by afternoon but with little success.
Taking care of her husband, sons and their families was a very demanding task for a woman in her 50s. But despite all hectic routine, she did not seem tired when she finally rode with her relatives to participate in PTI’s rally at Islamabad.
“It is the matter of future of the country. We can’t leave Imran Khan alone, we all need to spare time and respond to his calls,” Shahina said passionately.
She said, “I have spent my life. I have three kids, two married and one single, and an ailing husband. I am worried about the future of my grand kids. Things have deteriorated in front of my eyes in my beloved country. I have seen brutality, corruption and impatience around me.”
“I am supporting Khan to give my kids and grand kids a Pakistan, which I saw in my early days,” she said.
Being a wife of a bureaucrat, Shahina lived a very vibrant life. She saw most of the towns of the country and frequently travelled abroad. After the retirement of her husband, she started designing clothes. “The whole system is corrupted. If you are honest, the system eats you up. Due to daily increasing inflation, you cannot run your kitchen without bribe. Your kids cannot get a job without strong political connections.”
After taking some diversions and many times asking for directions, Shahina and her relatives somehow reached the parking designated for PTI protesters without much botheration. After taking around ten minutes walk, she along her relatives reached the PTI rally venue near D-Chowk and her eyes started shining.
“I don’t care what opponents say about Khan in their campaigns. I know Imran Khan made a cancer hospital, a university and brought victories and good name in cricket for the country. He is not a corrupt man. If in his personal life he made some mistakes, it is not a big deal. Being humans we all do mistakes. Khan is an angel if we compare it with other politicians,” Shahina gave her final verdict before disappearing in the crowd.
“As a peaceful and law-abiding citizen, we can only protest. Now after providing so many proofs of rigging, the government is unmoved. Whatever Khan is doing is right and we fully endorse him in his all decisions,” Badshah Khan, a protestor from KP, said with a glowing face.
There was overall a sense of victory on the faces of protestors for gathering a large number of crowd and they were not shy to express it.
People are becoming more aware, now they want real solution of their problems and not political slogans only. “The nation has awakened and we will continue this sit-in until we don’t get rid of inherited rulers,” said Kazim Ali Shah, another protestor. He was worried over load shedding and demise of industry.
There were people from all walks of life in rally but most of them were educated. Danial, a young man with a spark of intelligence in his eyes, said that the change was not initiated only by Imran Khan; rather it has been long desired by armed forces, intelligentsia and youth of the country, who are, according to him, sick of traditional politics of corruption and self gain.
Among the crowd there were kids, women and elderly people, most of them seemed fascinated with Khan’s ideology and charisma. The city was calm mostly but the charged atmosphere at the Constitution Avenue and large number of participants in the rally suggested that PTI was successful in filling up the stands at the sit-in area which were turning empty with every passing day. The large gathering and numerous cameras depicted that PTI won back public support.