You may have heard of secondhand cars, the same which business is many times bigger than new cars in Pakistan. Such vehicles – which are imported from Korea and Japan – also have permanent showrooms, they also have Sunday and Friday bazaars. This is an extraordinary and multi-faceted business.
In other words, we can call it a good from Lunda bazar. People, who call themselves wealthy, never visit such local bazars but use Lunda’s car and show themselves as they belong to Michael Schumacher’s family. You were well acquainted with secondhand clothes and shoes, but you may have noticed for the first time that a secondhand car is actually a Lunda car.
In the same way, a third thing actually belongs to Lunda and is used as a secondhand car, but you are not aware of this aspect of it. This third thing is not marketed all year round like Lunda cars but like clothes it has its season. I mean the second-hand electives , the general elections that have a season.
Under the umbrella of democracy, the system of the welfare of the country and the nation is carried out, which is followed by thousands of years of tradition in philosophy, theology and social sciences. The tradition has given birth to many ideas.
When it comes to ideology, it means nothing more than full commitment, but in a country where democracy has become a trade instead of human welfare, then markets can be established in this regard as well. The list of types of markets cannot be complete unless it includes Lunda Bazaar. So in our democracy, if there is even a market for secondhand electives – who are in fact the epitome of democracy – it is more a thing to mourn than a surprise.
There was a time when the PPP and PML-N were the only parties making government in our country. In those days, these secondhand electives were joining and partying ways with these two parties. When the PPP governments fall, these secondhand electives then join PML-N and vice versa.
But for some years now, a third party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has been in the fray and has been the biggest purchaser of these democratic Lunda electives in the last two elections. In 2018, PPP proved to be the biggest Lunda Bazaar in our democratic history while PTI proved to be the biggest buyer. The brokers tried desperately to snatch some electives from the PML-N but to no avail.
Like imported reconditioned vehicles, the PTI also had reconditioned imported candidates like Chaudhry Sarwar. And these ripped jeans was the only elective that could be snatched from the PML-N. PTI also had an elective like Jahangir Tareen who has been on the path of a new customer today.
Fawad Chaudhry is PTI’s third-hand electable. First, he was with Musharraf, remained the property of PPP in the second hand and nowadays all his rights seem to be safe in the name of Khan Sahib. As you may know, PTI also has a large number of second-hand electives which are required by law like Afghan transit vehicles and they have changed their engine and chassis number and made themselves “clear and transparent (Saaf and Shafaf)”.
In these second-hand electives, Dr Amir Liaquat Hussain was neither of Afghan transit type, nor was he reconditioned, nor was he purchased from Sunday or Friday Bazaar. He is from the world of media. He was bought from the classifieds of a big newspaper. Khan Sahib had amassed a lot of Lunda’s wealth but he did not know which of these tires would explode on the election road, who would get challan, and whose engine would fail.
Aleem Khan is also a second-hand truck of the same level. His engine had not stopped even before the election, he was also given the election victory. But after the election, when the owner saw that his engine was capable of showing more power than necessary, he filled the radiator with garbage and made the engine useless.
This truck also reached the parking lot. And now, like Jahangir Tareen, this second-hand truck is on its way to a new owner. But that is not all. Some old Mitsubishis like Raja Riaz and Noor Alam Khan are also parked. While a few second-hand rickshaws and Chung Chi are also seen in a corner of the same parking lot.
Reports indicate that this parking lot is going to get smaller in the coming days. The season is upon us and there will be shopping. It remains to be seen whether the PML-N, which is echoing for the sanctity of the vote, will also pick up some of this lot. If PML-N wants to improve its image, it should stay away from this Lunda Bazaar.
