For Paid Subscribers: Sixty-three years ago, Habib Jalib stood in a Lahore gathering and recited a poem about a lamp that only lights palaces. Radio Pakistan took his voice off the air. They jailed him, blacklisted him, left him without income for most of his life. He died in 1993 with nothing the state had not taken from him. This Eid, as above forty percent of Pakistanis live below the poverty line and the salaried class pays taxes the landlords and traders do not, "Dastoor" is not history, it is actually the morning news.
https://t.co/hvzjK0Vtp8
PTI doing what it always does. Last night it was claiming 180 seats.
This afternoon, Gohar Sb has revised downwards to 170.
The truth is the margin of manipulation is never far larger than about 30 seats. This is what it approximately was in 2018.
The actual margin in this election is probably the same and that is cumulative (don’t forget Balochistan).
Gohar Sb himself claims 22 seats where PTI has winning Form 45s.
120 is probably a good indicator of the PTI’s actual strength.
Why does this matter?
Because at ~120 seats, PTI still needs to do what it should have done in 2018. Make peace with the other two parties and possibly ally with one of them.
It doesn’t matter that this is distasteful for the party faithful.
Every leader (& every sane person acknowledges) the need for stability to govern the country through a still raging economic, security, political and climate crisis.
Coalitions with popular support are the only path forward.
���🇰 🤲🏽
Estb has only two options;
1. Embrace the inevitable.
2. Prolong its as well as everyone's misery for a limited period of time and then get the inevitable to embrace them.
Their choice.
I brought back India's luck. Taking pictures with Virat Kohli and the entire India squad during the Asia Cup helped India regain form. I deserve credit too. Anything for South Asia 🇮🇳🇵🇰♥️ #CWC23#INDvsENG