Where is the whole truth?

Although the severe political turbulence buffeting Sardar Usman Buzdar's government is not yet over, the winds of in-house change are blowing through the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Reports suggest that a revolt within the ruling PTI government in KP against KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan is brewing. Some of his cabinet ministers, who have been encouraged by National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser and Federal Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, are said to be behind this move. "Since the chief minister is weak, he empowered non-elected people around him to make important decisions. All important positions in different departments are on sale," says one of the members of the disgruntled group, which comprises five ministers and 20 members. In Balochistan, Provincial Assembly Speaker Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo has announced a similar move of in-house change against Chief Minister Mir Jam Kamal. Bizenjo says, "We did not want to bring no-confidence motion and want a change within the party, and if that doesn't take place within party then we have friends in the opposition and we could bring change with their support." Both the chief ministers, however, rejected these moves. They are confident that the supreme leader, Prime Minister Imran Khan, has full confidence in their competence. The also claim that the prime minister stands by their decisions. But there is Byzantium to all of it; they may be incapacitated given their inexperience but no less significantly they are powerless in the face of senior bureaucracy which is controlled from Islamabad. If history is any guide, there is nothing new about emergence of 'forward blocs' in ruling parties. Not only is there a power tussle between PTI heavyweights Jehangir Tareen and Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the coalition partner PML-Q is also winking at the slot of chief ministership in Punjab. It is, therefore, quite likely that governance - both at the centre and in provinces - will remain tempestuous during the remaining tenure of PTI.

That said, there are quite a few strange, unusual developments which create doubts about the viability of the present system. There are reports that the scion of the Chaudhrys of Gujrat, youthful and ambitious Monis Ilahi, had held a meeting with the senior bureaucrats of the Punjab government and gave them his mind as to what they should do or not do with regard to distribution of development funds. That he met them without the knowledge of Chief Minister Buzdar is a fact. That the prime minister has already declared the young Chaudhry 'unfit' for the top slot in the province is also a fact. The situation has, therefore, given birth to a profound question: Who is then cooking up this yarn? Then there was this 'unconditional' support of the government in the parliament for the extension of General Bajwa's tenure by the PML-N and PPP, and grant of bails to all the incarcerated leaders of political opposition. It is quite interesting to note that the visiting US official, Alice Wells, wanted to meet Bilawal Bhutto and Maryam Nawaz, but she did not get the opportunity. The question why she has stepped up criticism of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) also has no easy answer. There is a great deal of confusion, breeding uncertainty about the plans and policies nurtured and followed by the government, or developments beyond its control. When the prime minister tells his audience at Davos that "my government is most transparent" the Transparency International says that Pakistan was more corrupt in 2019 - even more than what it was during the governments of Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari. When the people of Pakistan face acute shortage of wheat flour the government first says there is no shortage of it, but goes for its import after having exported it only few months back - and all of it reportedly done by same important political player. The time for blame game is over. It's about time the government came clean on these ambiguities and conjectures. It is high time the prime minister spent the same amount of time it gave to international audience at Davos with the people at home and apprised them of the ground realities as they obtain in today's Pakistan.