Wikipedia offers this for the term Tsunami: A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water. And this is what a tsunami is thought of around the whole world. However in Pakistan it means something different entirely. A tsunami is what will save Pakistan.
Imran Khan has identified himself as a viable oppressor to the current political parties going crazy in the Pakistani government. He has gained a rather large following in the last few years and every single one of his Jalsas (processions) have been a huge success. The number of people that attended them have always surpassed all expectations. Recently I had a chance to attend one of these jalsas as they were being held in Rawalpindi, where I live. In order for the procession to be a success it has to have a large attendance. This is what we set out to see. And Imran Khan’s followers did not disappoint us.
There was so much of a rush that we had to park about two kilometers away from the Liaqat Bagh , the venue of the procession. A large part of our family had tagged along, including one small 5 year old, Saad. I would like to point out his patience and perseverance for walking the two kilometers, standing there for an hour or two more and walking almost all the way back. Only when we asked if he would like to be piggybacked back to the car did he limply nod his head.
The aforementioned 5 year old. Photo by Ayesha Shahid.
Now, the disappointing part was that there were too many people present for us to actually get inside. However this is also the best part of the Jalsa. That the crowd prevented us from getting in. That the people had to climb over the gates to witness the Captaan’s speech. In a little while security had been called to stop this and they began to patrol the entry gates with sticks in their hands (though they never did use them). Both inside and outside you could see the supporters piling up the roads. We walked through with badges pinned to our chests and flags waving in our hands, as a sense of unity prevailed among those present there.
What is now a famous slogan of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan’s party, was once just a hope of the chairman, “Tsunami aa rha hai!” or translated it is “Tsunami is coming!”. Tsunami has become almost synonymous with change in Pakistan. Often in his speeches has he used this line and often to much applause.
We had to return as there was no point in staying as we had found out that there were more than enough people present to support the cause of change. When we came home the main man’s speech was airing on the news channels. And this is the crowd he addressed:
