Afrah Jamal

First Published in Daily Times (Pakistan) / 11 May 2013 (Election Day) Published under the Title : Lights, Camera, Action, Vote "Let no man imagine that he has no influence. Whoever he may be and whereever he may be placed, the man who ‘thinks’ becomes a light and power” — Henry George . The city has been overrun by campaign slogans; the cinema, on the other hand, was adorned by Chambaili banners. Everyone knows this is not a real party. But it symbolises real change. Those who have been to the fictional land not that far away, with gateways guarded by giant statues of Pharaohs and where a man named Musa (Moses) is the face of its modern day resistance movement will understand the significance of Chambaili. Falakabad comes with a ruling class, a package deal of tyrants and their inept progenies, its institutions in need of immediate rebooting and the landscape marred by a dreadful state of status quo. The oppressed occupants of this Godforsaken land count the days when ...