The shoe now is on the other foot

Prime Minister Imran Khan's consistent theme in opposition and after coming to power in 2018 has been the eradication of corruption. How embarrassing then for him and his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) government, to have its own ministers and allies named in the two investigative reports on the sugar and wheat crisis that overtook the country starting from 2019. According to the report, the federal government under Imran Khan was persuaded to act in the interests of sugarcane growers when it transpired that the sugar mill owners were not lifting sugarcane on the plea that they had surplus stocks of sugar. The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) and the federal cabinet on Imran Khan's direction then allowed the export of surplus sugar on condition the local price would not rise. Not only that, the federal cabinet having declared that it had no funds for providing a subsidy for these exports, which in any case has now been devolved to the provinces after the 18th Amendment, the Punjab government lavished a Rs three billion subsidy on the sugar mills exporters. But the consequences of these decisions were not clear to the government and surprised it when the domestic price of sugar rose dramatically over the last over a year. For all the brave initial talk of not allowing the domestic price to rise, the government, despite Imran Khan's bluster, proved unable to control the market forces that produced an almost 50 percent rise in sugar prices. Two days after the report was made public on April 5, 2020, Imran Khan reshuffled his cabinet, shifting around ministers named as major beneficiaries in the report and 'removing' Jahangir Khan Tareen from his role of overseeing the government's agriculture policies. Though the reshuffle of the portfolios may seem like an appropriate response to the scandal, it smacks of nothing more than a desperate initial gambit to save the government's blushes. Imran Khan has promised strict action against those found responsible for the scandal after the detailed forensic report is presented on April 25, 2020. Meanwhile reports of 'threats' by the sugar cartel to remove all sugar from the market if the report's findings are acted upon (against this very cartel) have been dismissed with a warning by Imran Khan to desist or strict action will be taken against such elements.

The anti-corruption mantra of Imran Khan has now landed him in a fix. If he does not act swiftly and without fear or favour, all the accusations flying around that his government, with the help of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and other federal agencies has been conducting a witch-hunt against the opposition leadership will have found fresh credibility. Hoist by his own petard of an anti-corruption campaign that has now brought his own party leaders and allies into the dock, Imran Khan faces nothing less than a make-or-break test of credibility. In the first place, the cabinet reshuffle, according to the religious party leaders, is little more than an eyewash, an assertion, that some may find, not without a ring of truth. In the second place, if appropriate administrative and legal actions, the two correctives advised by the report, are not carried out in a transparent, thoroughgoing and effective manner, Imran Khan and his PTI-led coalition government will find themselves pushed against the wall and accused of hypocrisy. The old saying, those who live by the sword die by the sword should not translate in the present instance into those who live by an anti-corruption mantra dying because of that same mantra if they fail to grasp the nettle firmly of acting against corruption and influence-peddling in their own ranks without pulling any punches.