The tight end of the funnel

The players are gathered in the wings, the (probably flawed) polls are closed, the results are in and the curtain is about to go up on a different government to that which held power at the turn of the year. The cast is new but with some old faces in the mix, and the lead character is far from new but very new to the lead role. Lead players are entitled to a little grandstanding as they take the stage, and the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) looks set to make his debut as prime minister on August 14, Independence Day no less — a decision that comes freighted with considerable irony.

Imran Khan is going to be the 21^st elected prime minister if all goes to plan, and the necessary arrangements are reportedly well in hand for the president to perform his ceremonial duty after the Election Commission of Pakistan has held the election for the position of prime minister — that is only going to have one outcome the wishful thinking of parties other than the PTI notwithstanding. New members of the National Assembly (NA) are likely to be taking the oath on August 11 and these freshly-minted parliamentarians will move into governance. There is still the matter of where the independents will sit and the allocation of reserved seats for women and the minorities, but there is an established formula for such allocation and the process should be a formality only though again with new faces in the cast-list.

The 2018 general election has been unlike any other in the course of Pakistan’s democratic experiment, and the resulting government and its leader equally so. They came to power on what amounts to a single-point agenda of anti-corruption. Single point perhaps but a vast job that has no quick-fix, no plug and play solution. Corruption is endemic at every level of society and part of the national genetic code. Attempts to re-engineer that will be fiercely resisted. Independence Day is going to have a different ring to it this year.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 5^th, 2018.

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