PTI, showbiz celebrities and Pakistani urban middle class

As the political temperature unabatedly continues to rise in the country, it appears that people all across the board are wholeheartedly expressing their political opinions and choices with no constraints – after all we are a democracy, aren’t we? While political discussions have once again resurfaced with intensity at our homes and workplace, surprisingly, we are not only finding it on the instagram stories of our celebrities but also seeing them participating in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s jalsas.

With people in thousands coming out to express their support from Karachi and Peshawar to Lahore and Islamabad, safe to say that the country is going through massive Imran Khan wave – and the entertainment industry is no exception. Looking by the profiles it seems that except Mira Sethi, every mainstream celebrity is either supporting former Prime Minister Imran Khan or have chosen to become a ‘keyboard warrior’ for him.

Many well-known entertainment personalities, including Sarwat Gilani, Haroon Shahid, Syra Yousaf, Feroze Khan were recently observed at Imran Khan’s jalsa in Karachi. Shaan Shahid, Samina Peerzada, Khalid Anam, Musician Annie Khalid were spotted in the party’s Lahore gathering. Interestingly, out of the blue, singer Waris Baig was spotted at the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s meeting held at a local Lahore hotel. But now here if Gen Z or Millennial wonders, “But who is Waris Baig anyway” – they can be given leeway.

Days before the jalsas clothing retail shops in the upscale markets of the metropolis enjoyed great business courtesy massive orders of shirts and caps that complimented with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan’s picture and his ‘Absolutely Not’ quote. Clearly Khan sahib has become a phenomena that is next to impossible to ignore in the urban centers among the upper and middle income segment of the society – but the question here is does the trend influencing the choice of our entertainment celebrities or Khan’s support base is too massive that it is engulfing celebrities as well?

Rana Asif, a Karachi-based journalist affiliated with the Voice of America, believes that celebrities putting their weight behind Khan is because their prime target audience present on digital landscape sides with the PTI chief which in some way or another influence their choice, however, he cautiously maintains that as the mainstream celebrity today also belongs to Millennial and GenZ (the segment where PTI is massively popular) hence their support to the party can also because they genuinely believe Khan sahib fulfils their aspirations as like their middle class and upper-middle class fan base.

“What is more interesting here is to see that the traditional parties long before the emergence of the PTI had cultural wings where people associated with arts and showbiz were part of them,” Asif said. “Where they have vanished. PPP, PML-N even MQM had them but now we are seeing no presence of them.”

Singers Salman Ahmed, Farhan Saeed, Bilal Khan have regularly appeared on the PTI platforms at their public gatherings. Infusing musical element to the charged jalsas that has an overwhelmeing presence of religion, conspiracy and nationalism. A complete social-political package complimented with entertainment that encapsulates everything for everyone – that is hard to ignore. And that brings to the next question does celeb power influence voting patterns in the country, or more specifically at the urban centers? Does Imran Khan kurtas on fashion ramps, catchy music videos, insta stories and vote shout outs bring people to the polling booth or are they are limited in scope on purely political grounds.

Digital culture journalist Syeda Afra Fatima believes that the showbiz support as seen in the previous polls does help a political phenomena become a trend, or “the cool thing” but it does not really impact the voting pattern. Showbiz factor is small in impact, she said. “The young people definitely get their confirmation bias when they see their favourite celebrity standing with their political standing but on the polling day many other factors play into effect as well so we cannot say that it has a decisive influence.”

Fatima, however, said that the PTI support base and its support from the celebrities shows a good picture of the urban, young, professional middle class aspirations present today. “You look at the PTI jalsa and you see how the youth see itself and what they want – and that includes showbiz celebrities as well,” she concluded.