The edge of shame

In the 2018-23 term, governments will need to translate money into actual work

And so it ends in four days. Yet another elected government limping across the finishing line of yet another five-year term while battling yet another crisis imperilling yet another election to be contested by yet another conglomeration of establishment-friendly political outfits.

The more things change…

Yes, they do remain the same in most aspects. But not all. The 2013-18 term saw the sitting government plagued with instability, insecurity and inefficiency on many counts. The term witnessed the same old civil-military tension pegged to the same old issues ultimately leading to the same old outcomes of the government beaten, battered and bruised in a fight it has little chance to win. Or at least that’s the verdict of history.

But do such verdicts hold forever and ever?

This is where this five-year term has veered into a slightly different trajectory. Yes, we have on our chessboard a traditional anti-establishment character; yes, we also have the latest version of the anokha ladla jumping through hoops as all anokha ladlas are wont to do in all eras; yes we have the random ‘extras’ who form the backdrop for this cyclical cosmic battle and whose role remains confined to cheering or jeering on cue — and yet there is something different that has emerged in this term.

Two aspects constitute this difference and both promise to keep unfolding in the term of 2018-23. First the good news:

Delivery and performance have never seen so much focus and so much competition than during this term. In Punjab, Shehbaz Sharif launched into a frantic project spree as soon as he took oath of his second five-year term as chief minister. He hasn’t looked back. In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Imran Khan promised to deliver on his change mantra and barrelled ahead with a series of structural reforms. Sindh and Balochistan — sadly — fell by the wayside and were crushed under the weight of their respective governments’ monumental incompetence.

Today, performance is a mega-political narrative. Were it not for Shehbaz Sharif’s hyper-development model in Punjab, the PML-N would not have had much to show for its five-year performance. The federal government focused on energy and not much else. Yes, motorways and a few infrastructural projects were sanctioned but in terms of service delivery and critical political and financial structural reform, the government fared below average. As a result today as the party buckles up for the campaign, it is banking on its dual narrative of delivery and victimhood. In other words, had Nawaz Sharif not been disqualified, his party’s election campaign would have been overwhelmingly dependent on his younger brother’s performance in Punjab. What does this say about the rest of the PML-N’s competent team that was paraded as an asset in the 2013 campaign?

For Imran Khan, it was critical to showcase Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa as the manifestation of his big talk and tall claims. He did so to the best of Pervaiz Khattak’s abilities. The scorecard at the end of the five-year term is much better than past K-P governments, but nowhere near what was expected from Imran’s first government. In the early days immediately after the 2013 elections, the PTI big guns jumped into the K-P fray to construct an ideal government reflecting the dynamic ethos of the PTI. Urban legends talked of Asad Umar and Jahangir Tareen fully involved in planning and executing policies in K-P that would herald in the promised era.

Then the dharna happened.

Today Imran Khan and his team can claim significant progress in K-P but not enough to make it the engine of their campaign. In this respect, Shehbaz is better placed to encash his development and delivery into votes. The moral of the story of the term that ends this week is that the electorate does care very much about work that improves the lives of the citizens of the country. Gone are the days of fat cat drawing room politicians puffing on cigars behind closed doors and scheming to get into the corridors of power despite the voters — not because of them. In the 2018-23 term, governments will need to not just put their money where their mouth is, but to translate this money into schools, hospitals, roads and services that actually work. Money is only one factor. The others are the requisite will and skill. The saga of Pervaiz Khattak is a reminder that all the money in the world amounts to not much in the absence of the ability and skill to manage projects till their successful completion. The metro in Peshawar mocks Khattak. Lessons need to be learnt for 2018-23.

Here’s the bad news:

Net gains for 2013-18 do not look good. Almost all key factors that determine the long-term health of a country are not painting an encouraging picture. Essential and fundamental freedoms have receded, transparency in matters of governance and ruling has gone down, space for freedom of expression has diminished, arena for political parties to play on has shrunk (as the next government would discover), institutional equilibrium within the state has grown more imbalanced, and our status among the international community has probably gone down a notch or two.

As the curtain comes down this week on the federal and provincial governments, Pakistanis should not be blamed for sighing and hoping for better times. Hope however is never a plan of action. Voting is. Five years after pinning their hopes on to the Sharifs, Imran Khans and Zardaris, they are once again being served the same menu. They can vote with their feet and vent with their vote. But this act requires a basic pre-requisite: a free, fair and transparent election that translates the collective aspirations of Pakistanis into a genuine mandate for 2018-23.

If we cannot even have such an election after seven decades of our existence, then let us truly hang our heads in shame.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th, 2018.

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