The internet in Pakistan has become a contested terrain, used by left, right and center to peddle the political interests of their own, more so in the past couple of months. The holy month of Ramzan has been no exception. The supercharged political scene has been in the final overs, the digital battle space is since been breaking the internet daily. The marchers are ready to charge on the capital, to gain what was rightfully theirs. The new tenants of the holy fort, are daggers drawn, and the bows pulled back like Chaudry’s mustache. Constitution and its avenue could be in grave danger with swords of Damocles hanging over. As the climax is yet to arrive in our sensational political film, it is an opportune time to reflect on house-hold emerging technologies whose boundaries have coalesced into the realm of politics.
This is the 4th Industrial revolution era, ladies and gentlemen, the ‘war of independence’ couldn’t be fought with bare hands, foot or manjaniks. The contemporary tools of the rightly guided ones and the Raj are the Artifical Intelligence, Machine Learning, Big Data and the likes. The old Raj sahebs and Khan Bahadurs have resorted to deploying modern technologies to manipulate information consumed by the poor public. Dissent is monitored, communications are censured and the mutineers are put behind bars to ‘boot’ softwares. Gone are the days when corner meetings would be held over grand courtyard luncheons to galvanize support. The appetite has evolved, so has the food but the behavior of the consumers is still the same.
After laying siege to the forts of Lahore, Karachi and Jhallianwala, the Sher Singh is out in the ‘space’ to take on the Dawyers for crushing the soul of his wit. Taking them to cleaners after taking them to courts but Atkinson is in no mood of showing any remorse. Global Twitter spaces records are being smashed and e-chowks are crowded in the country’s cyber space. Like the public squares and panchayats of the fore, these spaces are the virtual d-chowks of the democratic order. The Grand Vizier, however, is not so convinced through. To Vizier these are the BOTS in the guise of humans offering no real threat to the mighty Lion kingdom. BOTS are the loyal subjects of only ‘His’ excellency for all anyone cares, employing software scripts to multiply and extrapolate. Haters gonna hate but potatoes will potate.
Nonetheless, the Army of trolls has approached the enemy gates, Cheering and Sloganeering, to whip up the sentiments and rally round the flag. Bugles and trumpets are being blown, the gladiators of the podcast are inspecting the guards, hoping for the emperor to have a great fall. The Youtubers and the Vloggers are indulging into messianic oration. The hashtags are echoing millionth times in the corridors of power. The princess wonders why the revolutionaries won’t eat cake and take a hike somewhere. Uncle sam is helpless, Emir-ul-Mulk is hopeless, Khazanchi is clueless, Unionist is cynical, Qazi is silent and the coffers dried. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put people together again. Far away from this Panipat, in a foreign land, Elon Musk lodged himself on the throne of the Acanthis. Only to learn that lingua franca in vogue there was completely alien to him. He couldn’t help but pull off his space-X, learning that the Kingdom of the space belongs to another race, leaving him behind only with his boring company.
