Panama: from leaks to crisis

What could have been a ‘well left’, the PML-N moved down the pitch to seek adventure with the ball. It is as if this script repeats itself every few months: Imran pokes, the PML-N overreacts; Imran starts seeing an opportunity to become prime minister and gets distracted; the PML-N survives, yet someone else wins. One wonders who is advising the prime minister, and on what grounds decisions are being taken. Panama could have been just another leak; it became the Panama crisis because of the way the PML-N’s media and political team mismanaged the entire affair. But who is to be blamed? Those who run the PML-N’s media and social media cells? Or he who runs the Ministry of Information? With over a dozen uncoordinated communication teams operating within the PML-N that ironically lack communication amongst themselves, it is almost impossible for the prime minister to hold a single person accountable. Three years into the government, the PML-N is still struggling on the media and strategy front.

The PML-N can build great infrastructure, fix the railways, cut costs in the Central Development Working Party, get things moving on privatisation and deliver all this at lightning speed. But when it comes to media strategy, crisis management and building perception, the PML-N is as clueless and as reluctant to learn as the PPP is on the development front. Playing on the front foot and attacking Imran Khan or Shaukat Khanum, was naive. Taking ages to set up an inquiry was even worse, allowing space to the third force to fully capitalise on the situation. Recruiting the wrong people from the Musharraf era to defend the PML-N on television, running absurd press conferences mentioning how un-Islamic it is to even mention Middlesex University and then clarifying that they actually meant ‘Hamfield’, is all a result of incompetence and a lack of understanding on how to manage the media in the digital age.

A government in attack mode is a government struggling to be stable. The opposition provokes, but the government must be strong enough to turn a blind eye. Like everything else in Pakistan, the quick turnover of the news cycle kills the story, no matter how controversial. It is as if the PML-N was foretold about the Panama leaks. It had prepared the script and the strategy to counter it, without realising the need to improvise. Panama isn’t a story in Pakistan because of Imran Khan; it is a story because the PML-N made it a story when the prime minister provided his clarifications, and by launching an aggressive media campaign without considering that sometimes silence works better. The net result? More and more people are convinced that the prime minister has something to hide.

It is not that the Panama crisis will have an impact on the next elections. The PML-N is likely  to sweep the polls. But in a party where loyalty is more important than professionalism, one may win elections, but will fail to run the government. The threat of collapse isn’t from outside, but from the very people that the prime minister chooses to surround himself with. While it is understandable that he prioritises loyalty after the 1999 military coup, there is no reason why he can’t couple it with professionalism. If he takes a look behind his chair in parliament, he will see exceptional young candidates that have the energy and skills to manage crises in the age of digital media. When the dust finally settles, the least the prime minister can do is launch an internal inquiry on what went wrong, who advised what, and if possible, let go of the people who are responsible for messing up ever since Imran Khan landed at D-Chowk for the very first time. If there isn’t a reshuffle based on performance, it is only a matter of time before the PML-N, led by its advisors, is led into another crisis. My only concern is that it might be the last one before some third force takes advantage of it.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7^th, 2016.

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