EDITORIAL: The prime minister has advised his cabinet colleagues not to leave the country without prior permission as according to him the next three months are “extremely important”. This has set the buzz about the “instability” of the PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) government. Constitutionally, the political life of the incumbent government is five years, but there is no dearth of people who are of the view that it will not complete its mandated tenure because of a variety of reasons.
According to them, for example, there is a dark cloud on the political horizon for the Imran Khan-led coalition governments in the centre and provinces. And this cloud is essentially of the rulers’ own making. In other words, this situation owes its existence to an admixture of failures of Prime Minister Khan’s economic teams, immature governance by his ministers and his own ego-centric mindset.
Anything that could go wrong with the PTI-led government has gone wrong. The prime minister’s wounds are self-inflicted ones; the political opposition that now bares its teeth was nowhere in sight when people voted Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf to power. Although Covid-19 has hurt economic growth the world over, the menace has been much less hurtful in Pakistan. The reality on the ground is that within a few months of the PTI empowerment, the subdued pest of inflation returned to the field and with much more vigour. With every passing day life became harder and harder for the common man. But the ministers keep harping that they inherited it from the ‘corrupt’ preceding governments. They keep comparing the local prices with those in other countries, without realising that this kind of comparison lacks logic and it has only a few takers in the country.
The ill-conceived and wrongly implemented accountability process is an additional blow to the national economy. If the political opposition described it as vendetta, the business community went into hibernation while the bureaucracy shelved the files. Then there was the government’s consistent claim – to great wonder and disbelief of many – that it had been maintaining harmonious working relationship with the powers that be. Many argue that the government and the powers that be may still be on the same page, but they are reading different paragraphs.
To a discerning mind, according to sceptics, Imran Khan’s government is now a liability for the powers that be. There can be an argument that Imran Khan’s contentious politics is a well-considered tactic to divert the attention of masses from the steep price hikes and poor governance. But whatever may be his scheme, his political opponents today have a field day against him.
Such is the gravity of looming threat to the PTI government that even its coalition partners say, in confidence, “why we should sink with the ship”. The Chaudhrys-led PML-Q, which has five seats in the National Assembly and 10 in the Punjab Assembly, “finds it hard to back PTI”. The MQM-P having 7 seats in the National Assembly, says “we were never briefed on issues like electronic voting machines (EVMs)”. And the PTI’s third coalition partner, Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), too, has openly voiced its disenchantment with the manner the federal government functions.
The political lingo acquired the kind of obnoxious tone and tenor in Pakistan as never before. It is all the more disgusting when mostly it is the preserve of the government ‘spokespersons’. Instead of highlighting the positive points of their governments they describe the opposition leaders as thieves and enemy agents with relish. A case in point is Planning Minister Asad Umar’s statement in which he accused journalists of colluding with the opposition and threatened to use force against them.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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