<\/p>\n
From Imran Khan’s AI persona to PTI’s tech tactics, the party is proving to the state that blocking or banning political opponents just doesn’t work anymore.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll be voting in Pakistan\u2019s 10th general election scheduled for February 8 with a heavy heart and addled brain. Like most people I\u2019ve recently spoken to, I\u2019m confused about who to vote for and am feeling increasingly ambivalent about the utility of exercising my right to adult franchise. Two previous elections drained me of any enthusiasm for democracy.<\/p>\n
In truth, my apathy scares me a bit \u2014 like when you realise your browser search history has documented your penchant for one particular category of grown-up audio-visual entertainment that is only accessible through VPN in Pakistan.<\/p>\n
Speaking of which, Pakistani election politics seems to have gone the way of such adult entertainment (which I promise none of us watch with Hotspot Shield). This is a good time to recall Ghazi Muhammad Abdullah, who at the unsullied age of 15 years so helpfully compiled a list of 780,000 grown-up websites<\/a> for the PTA in 2012.<\/p>\n GM Abdullah\u2019s crusade set the bar high for the PTA but the telecom watchdog has, to its credit, kept the tradition alive. More recently, it protected us from websites the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) set up to aid voters in the election. This is really just like WhatsApp helping me block an ex. And on the subject of bad romances, this national-level break-up has been particularly long drawn out. At the risk of belabouring a reheated analogy, I\u2019d say Imran Khan was one half of a power couple until he was dumped in 2022.<\/p>\n Pakistanis need constant moral protection<\/h2>\n