‘Aliens’ and ‘angels’ euphemisms mask election fears in Pakistan
islamabad — In most countries, politicians who warned that aliens were trying to influence an upcoming general election would likely find themselves ridiculed by the media and shunned at the ballot box.
In Pakistan, where cryptic references to “invisible hands” wielded by “the boys” have long been part of the political lexicon, such talk is a staple of the campaign trail.
Ahead of the July 25 vote, ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has cautioned that “aliens” (Pakistan’s military) will attempt to prevent his party from winning another fiveyear term. Others whisper about the role the country’s feared “angels” (intelligence services) might play.
The colourful terminology is partly a reflection of Pakistan’s rich linguistic heritage, peppered with English terms such as “blue-eyed boy” (one favoured by those in power) and “red lines” (forbidden subjects).
A closer look, though, shows a political vocabulary born out of fear of openly criticising the country’s powerful military — the unnamed subject of most of the creative language.
“These terms are particular to Pakistan because of our governance structure,” said Jibran Nasir, a prominent human rights lawyer and activist. “We have militarised politics, and that’s something you don’t get so often in a modern-day democracy.”
Pakistan’s military, which did not respond to a request for comment, has repeatedly denied interfering in modern-day politics.
Coming a decade after former army chief Pervez Musharraf was forced from power, July’s general election is billed as a historic event that would mark only the second democratic transition of power for a nation that has been ruled by the military for nearly half its history since independence in 1947.
But intensifying allegations of military meddling threaten to cast a shadow over the milestone, with senior figures in Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) alleging “hidden forces” are trying to weaken the party.
With newspapers abuzz with claims the military is attempting to engineer the election result and media houses complaining that “higher powers” (the military) are crushing free speech, journalists too are relying
on oblique terms to get their message across without angering the “Establishment” (the military and intelligence top brass, along with some senior civil servants and judges).
Newspaper editorials and social media are awash with fears the poll may be delayed due to behind-thescenes scheming by “anti-democratic forces” — yet another euphemism used to describe the army and its spy bodies, including the powerful InterServices Intelligence (ISI) agency.
In a recent speech, Sharif accused “invisible aliens” of intimidating his lawmakers and pushing them to switch sides.
“The real aliens … have been there for 70 years,” Sharif said. “Now, it is going to have a match, God willing, with humans, and humans with the blessing of God will defeat the aliens.” On Monday, Pakistan’s military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor declined to comment when he was asked at a news conference about the military being referred to as “aliens”.
Imran Khan, the cricketer-turnedpolitician whose Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaf (PTI) party is seen as PML-N’s main challenger, denies colluding with the military, but has in the past teased crowds at rallies that a “third umpire” might dismiss PML-N’s then-premier Sharif, widely interpreted as relying on a cricketing metaphor to suggest the army might intervene.
Nasir, the rights lawyer, said introducing “aliens” into the political lexicon was a calculated move by Sharif.
“It may be difficult for low-level PML-N workers to openly and publicly keep repeating that Nawaz Sharif is not competing against Imran Khan but against the military,” Nasir said.
“But it is easy for a worker to say he’s fighting ‘aliens’, and act naive. Everybody knows what he means.”
Many of the oblique terms for the military took hold in the 1970s and 1980s, during the rule of General Ziaul Haq, who had journalists tortured and whose censors vetted all stories before they were published.
“This language is well-honed and these terms all fit into the historical background of a military that has a pervasive role in Pakistani politics,” said Cyril Almeida, a columnist for
Dawn, the country’s largest Englishlanguage newspaper.
Many writers also feel the influence and overflow of Pakistan’s lingua-franca Urdu, a flowery and poetic language, has swelled the popularity of such colourful turns of phrase in English, which is Pakistan’s second official language widely spoken by the political and business elites. —
We have militarised politics, and that’s something you don’t get so often in a modern-day democracy
Jibran Nasir, an activist
These terms fit into the historical background of a military that has a pervasive role in Pakistani politics
Cyril Almeida, a columnist