Waseem Bhat
Imran Khan government came into power in August 2018 in which the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice) party secured 156 seats out of 342 in general election. A coalition was formed along with MQM, BAP and other parties raising the share of seats to 177 members. Imran Khan is one of the few leaders in Pakistan who hails from a non-political family background. As Pakistan witness a rare case of successful democracy plagued either by military coups or severe cases of corruption, the people of Pakistan in 2018 elections favoured Imran Khan as a fresh opponent to traditional political parties such as PML-N and PPP. Previously, Imran Khan in 2014 teamed with Pakistan origin Canadian cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri for conducting rallies against the former PM Nawaz Sharif citing rigged polls and demanding his resignation. His rallies from Lahore to Islamabad turned out to be a huge success in the general public & the media showcased him as a saviour of Pakistan. During 2018 political campaign, Imran Khan further capitalised on his image and in all his rallies continuously spoke for an Islamic welfare state. His main thrust points were eradication of corruption, poverty, poor healthcare system and damaged education system. His agenda points got well connected to the public & his charismatic cricketer turned politician image worked accurately in favour of him; however, Imran Khan has been severely accused of receiving military support for becoming PM and rigging the elections.
As a puppet and ‘selected’ PM of the nation, the Imran Khan government has failed to deliver all the promises and missed their goals by light-years. Pakistan political environment is complex in nature owing to political disparities, conflict of ideas, extremist narratives etc which denies any form of reformist leader to quickly bring sea changes in the political system. In September 2020, major opposition parties demanded Imran Khan to resign from his post & launched a 26 point joint resolution known as Pakistan Democratic Movement. Major parties such as PPP, PML-N, JUI-F etc had blamed Imran Khan for faking stability of the nation and allowing deep interference of Army in government machinery. His own party members and ministers in June 2021, acted as goons in Parliament by throwing away copies of constitution and threatening opposition. His own cabinet and party members lack the sincerity & respect towards parliament which Imran Khan has failed to understand and take responsibility of the act. Imran Khan immaturely tried to take control of the existing political system with a kingship attitude that no other party and its followers were ready to buy. In April 2021, Imran Khan declared that the opposition did not matter anymore which further reduced his popularity and proved him as an immature politician who has no idea and experience to balance the fragile political system of Pakistan.
Imran Khan promise to eradicate corruption from civil bureaucracy has also backfired. His model of jailing corrupt bureaucrats thereby denying and de-motivating others for corruption is based on a flawed assumption. Imran Khan did not invent an institutional measure to bring corruption under control. Rather than providing institutional autonomy to NAB, designing department transparency, improving democratic accountability, Imran Khan just simply introduced “reward and punishment’ policy for bureaucrats entailing only the sacking of the corrupt bureaucrats. Despite such efforts, dengue fever in Punjab could not be eradicated, polio prevention programme suffered a setback and COVID-19 was badly managed. Under the so called tabdili (transformation), Imran Khan should have ensured and implemented a robust national-level policy to detach corruption from society by reducing political interference. He could have very well instituted a national team of experts for identifying the problem and fundamental issues of its bureaucratic corruption to launch a well-determined action againstcorruption.
In December 2019, Imran Khan launched ‘Report Corruption’ app intended for reporting corruption by local public. Imran Khan failed to understand that such acts although may be welcoming but they can’t motivate population if the government just relies on a mobile app to fight petty corruption issues. Regrettably, he has shown immaturity by focusing on the corrupt rather than the overall corruption. PTI government can remain comfortable if a bureaucrat is incompetent but not corrupt which clearly brings out the mismanagement of government. Another nail in the Imran Khan political coffin is Pakistan’s broken economy and surged level of foreign loans. Even before COVID-19 pandemic, Pakistan economy grew by a mere 1.9% in 2019 displaying a heavy shortfall in comparison to 5.8% in 2018. After the pandemic, Imran Khan’s government failed to stimulate the economy and had no national plan for the same. Subsequently, inflation skyrocketed to 10.7% in 2020 which forced the government to import goods and especially food grains. Pakistan recorded a trade deficit of whooping 6,69,050 million PKR in October 2021 which is extremely unhealthy for a nation already under trillions of debt. Foreign borrowing increased by PKR 149 trillion during three years of Imran Khan government which surged the foreign loan to PKR 399 trillion. Heavy incompetence and lack of fiscal discipline in Imran Khan’s government is leading Pakistan’s to be one of the poorest nations in the world.
Pakistan elected Imran Khan as a “different” leader in all ways and means from previous traditional family made politicians in hope of pulling Pakistan out of its innumerable problems. PTI in 2018 sold its manifesto very smartly to its possible voters which included the educated middle class which had extremely high hopes from Imran Khan. With subsequent failures and immaturity to deal with problems, Imran Khan has almost concluded his political career for the next parliamentary elections in 2023. ‘Naya Pakistan’ which should have brought a tsunami of changes is nowhere in sight and its public is currently crunched under poverty and corruption due to then naive PM. With Imran Khan curiously being in the wrong place at the wrong time lately being in Kremlin on the day President Putin ordered special military operations in Ukraine it seems that the time is running out for him. Seeing the strong Pakistan Army in the eye, with the appointment of DG ISI & comparing Pakistan Army with dogs only further complicating the problem for Imran Khan. The recent Ukraine crisis and the position taken by Prime Minister Imran Khan has gone down well with Army and continuous bashing up the west is only aggravating the problems for him. With allies withdrawing support before no-confidence motion the only thing left to be seen is whether Imran Khan resigns or is forced to resign…
