A year and a half ago, Nawaz Sharif became the prime minister of Pakistan for the third time. His opponents say that was nature’s way of punishing him for rigging the 2013 election.
This scribe spoke to several of his most vocal young critics and asked what evidence they had to support the allegation.

Evidence 1 – Because Imran Khan says so.
“Wait, what kind of a question is that?” says Kala Kotwala, a young lawyer. “Are you trying to imply here that he is lying?” Kotwala, who also repairs broken motorcycles stranded on Canal Road on Sundays, believes there is no reason to question what the popular opposition politician is saying. “Why would he lie? And speaking of evidence, what evidence do you have that he is not telling the truth?” he asks. “Have you ever seen him speak? Such commitment to his cause. Can you place your hand on your heart and say in all honesty that he seems to you the kind of person who would lie?”

Evidence 2 – Five million children don’t go to school in Pakistan.
“Is that proof enough for you?” asks Nasreen Nimko, a liberal activist and freelance photographer. “And for every boy who doesn’t go to school, there are 1.2 girls who don’t go to school either. Can you digest that? 1.2 girls, with 1.2 dreams, 1.2 fears, 1.2 hopes, 1.2 aspirations, and 1.2 futures, who don’t go to school – 1.2 potentials that are not fully realized. Is this why Jinnah launched Pakistan?” Nimko says Pakistanis must wake up from their deep sleep before it is too late. “And what about all those schools that don’t have any children? Who will build them? Nawaz Sharif? In Canada, everybody speaks English. Nobody knows their mother tongue. What is happening to the world? Do you believe in democracy or elected government?”

Evidence 3 – Nawaz Sharif was losing when I went to sleep.
“Imran Khan was winning, I saw it on TV, okay and then at some point I fell asleep. When I woke up, he had lost,” argues Lateef Lighter, a college student and a political activist. “I asked my servant to wake me up, but he also fell asleep. Haramzada. And while we were sleeping, late that night some TV channels said that Nawaz Sharif had won. And it became a self-fulfilling prophecy, if you know what I mean. I don’t particularly understand how that happened but that’s what happened. What a travesty.”

Evidence 4 – Poetry is a universal language.
Wake up, say no to terrorism and smell the coffee,
before the spring is over,
we must look at all these other flowers in the garden,
and tolerate them, because they are different.
When unidentified men riding motorcycles drive by,
shooting,
when children have to sleep on the,
sidewalk,
when someone parks their car behind yours and,
disappears,
when you get into the shower and the water is cold,
because the maid used all the hot water to wash dishes,
when you can’t remember the name,
of an author,
flowers begin to bloom,
because a new leader has emerged from among us.
He will free us.
He will invent the world cup,
again.
– Professor Peeno
(magician, poet, and English teacher)

Evidence 5 – There are signs of doomsday all over.
“Have you ever seen girls and boys smoking sheesha together?” asks Liaqat Lecturer, currently unemployed. “Is it possible to tell who is who? That is what I am talking about.” Liaqat, a 23-year-old resident of Lahore’s Gulberg locality and son of a shopkeeper in the vicinity, spoke to us on the condition of anonymity. “Wherever you look, there are global warming and freemason symbols. There have been so many earthquakes that the world has become divided once again – not just on the basis of race and religion, or caste and class, but on the basis of tectonic plates that are responsible for all these fault lines that divide us. Is is my fault that I belong on this side of a fault line by accident of birth?”

Evidence 6 – My whole family voted for Imran Khan.
“For the first time in my life, all my cousins participated in the electoral process,” says Nadir Namurad, a self-employed entrepreneur who inherited a business from his father and is the general secretary of Laborers and Farmers Union of Faisalabad. “There was this whole new young vote bank that began to pretend to be politically aware thanks to Imran Khan. Where did all those votes go?” Namurad asks. “Nawaz Sharif may get away with it this time, but considering the quality of Pakistan’s healthcare system, by the next elections a large number of his elderly vote bank will be dead. Inshallah.”

The author has a degree in Poetics of Prophetic Discourse and works as a Senior Paradigm Officer.