Xari Jalil.-
LAHORE: It is a Thursday, and the eighth of Muharram. Hordes of families are getting off large coaster-buses a little distance away and walk together towards Karbala Gamay Shah, one of the biggest and most important Imambargahs in the city.
Clad in black and barefooted they walk on the main road, some also stopping to get inside Data Darbar. Not a tinge of any other colour can be seen on them, except the red band on their wrists. At a corner, some mourners carry plastic bags of niaz or blessed food. A homeless man cannot help but open his bag and bring out a fistful of rice to eat.
Little children from the family of mourners are seen walking with chains all over their body – a sign of grief and oppression of the tragedy at Karbala.
The atmosphere here is incredibly busy and even deeper inside the old city, which is a hub of activity during the Muharram days, there is complete focus only on Ashura. This year though Ashura has coincided with the election campaigning and political hustle and bustle has slowed down to give way to religious activity.
“It is not like last time,” says Ejaz a shopkeeper who sells inscribed chaadars and flowers that people lay out on the tomb of ‘Data Sahib’. “There was much more fervour before, and this time it was unfortunate for the candidates that the month of Muharram has slowed them down.”
Umar, a resident of Taxali Gate says the PML-N is the biggest party in the area and it is bound to win. But the campaigning has to take a back seat in any case because of the holy days.
“The main difference is that before Muharram they used to take out rallies all over this locality,” he says. “Now they have to reduce their campaigning to corner meetings.”
Some PML-N supporters sit outside their ward office. “To be honest there is not much difference where campaigning is concerned, because we are still meeting with people but obviously one cannot give anything more importance than ninth and tenth of Muharram,” says Subhani, a young party worker.
M Latif, an elderly shop owner says that one of the parties does have a political standing here but because of past experiences they cannot face people so (they) have opted not to campaign too strongly anyway. “For their campaigning, Muharram has no effect because they were hardly trying to win people over anyway,” he says. “But my reading is that voters’ turnout will be lower than usual because of Muharram.”
Candidates present a more positive picture. “Muharram has not really affected our campaigning as such,” says Ghulam Mustafa Butt, an independent contesting for a general councillor seat in the Shadbagh area (UC-40). “This does not mean that we are still campaigning. We have stopped all political activities till 10th of Muharram and will only resume after that. But we have not missed out on anyone because the response is good.”
He hopes it will not impact voters’ turnout either because the main Muharram days will have passed on by then (polling day).
“Many people have traveled to Lahore to observe Ashura, but very few will stay the entire month, therefore no one is expected to be displaced from their UCs,” he adds.
Contestant Raheela Kaukab of PML-N, from UC-52 also concurs saying she has not felt any difference as such because of Muharram although all political action has been slowed down because of the two important days.
But in the main Mochi Bazaar area, which is the heart of Muharram processions and has a network of small imambargahs, with several residents belonging to the Shia community, people do not care about the elections. A shopkeeper sells T-shirts with ‘Labaik Ya Hussain’ printed on them, along with other material such as steel pendants, bracelets, and ankle rings. Candles have been lit inside Imambargahs and some shop owners give away free drinking water.
“Yeh tou maula kay din hain (these are the days of our ‘Maula’), any politicians can go to hell,” says one very outspoken shopkeeper. He is joined by his friend Shahid Butt who says the public is sick and tired of these politicians who lie to them all the time.
“When they want they will win the elections,” says Butt. “They will use the public and do what they want and in the end even if they win they will not work for this area. So the people who live here do not really care about the election campaigns because no one is fooled. Here we are thinking about Imam Hussain and his followers and that in my opinion is far more important.”
Fuente: http://www.dawn.com/news/1214972/ashura-electioneering-go-side-by-side-i...
