The good, the bad and the ugly

It’s been all about Naya Pakistan the past week: the PTI’s nominees for Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Pakistan’s most populous province were victorious; Imran Khan became the Prime Minister of Pakistan after 22 years of perseverance; Arif Alvi was revealed as the PTI’s choice for the presidency; Imran Khan’s cabinet was revealed to the masses; and a dark horse candidate was selected to be in the running for the Chief Minister of Punjab. For those who have followed Imran Khan’s journey for 22 years, it might be necessary to pinch themselves to realise that they aren’t dreaming. The last week has demonstrated not just the good choices that the PTI and its charismatic leader can make but also some bad ones, and some, well, some were downright ugly.

The good came from Imran Khan’s decision to disavow pomp and ceremony. His rejection of the option to stay in the Prime Minister’s enormous estate is said to, according to some sources, save the country approximately PKR 1.85 billion annually. Call it populism or whatever you wish — and I might call you a cynic in turn — but Imran Khan is taking steps towards his promise of austerity. Good leaders practise what they preach and Khan is doing just that by following through on a promise. Furthermore, Imran has made some excellent choices from the people he has available to tackle some of the thorniest issues that exist in Pakistan today. Dr Shireen Mazari is slated to be the Federal Minister for Human Rights, the importance of which cannot be overstated. A well-educated woman like Dr Mazari not only represents a commitment to diversity and the value of women on Imran Khan’s part (something he has been accused of lacking) but also ensures that someone all too familiar with the struggle women face in Pakistan will handle human rights issues at the federal level. Just two months ago, Dr Mazari made a statement on Twitter about the rather taboo issue of ‘missing persons’. Those who think the PTI is the slave of the establishment may wish to take note of this. Similarly, Asad Umar is as good a candidate as any for the job of tackling an economy whose debt seems to be ballooning exponentially.

These good decisions haven’t come free from some equally bad ones by the new Prime Minister. I argued in a column for this paper that now that Imran Khan has won, he needs to rise above taunts and dharna speeches and be a diplomat since the PTI does not have a majority in the Senate and faces a strong opposition in the National Assembly. His speech in Parliament on the 17^th of August disappointed on this front. Losing his cool at the sloganeering by his political opponents, Imran Khan fell back to familiar taunts and the banal four constituencies humdrum that everyone is now sick of hearing. He would be upstaged by the 28-year-old Bilawal on a day that was supposed to be all about him. It should not be this easy to get underneath the skin of our Prime Minister. Neither can Imran Khan afford to be condescending, he has made many promises, but he must realise that he is not omnipotent even as Prime Minister. He will have to negotiate and navigate the bureaucracy and opposition if he wants to achieve even half the things he has committed to.

It is also lamentable that the PTI seems to have failed to do a basic background check on its candidate for Punjab CM. Being tried for murder only to settle things via blood money is hardly an ideal point to have on the resumé of arguably the second most powerful executive position in the country. It raises concerns in the minds of the people rather than confidence.

Finally, there are the ugly decisions — those involving the appointment of individuals who have shown how fickle their support for democracy is to important positions in the new government. None is more galling than Pervaiz Elahi as Speaker of the Punjab Assembly. Many may think it was an unavoidable compromise given the numbers in the Assembly, and furthermore, because the Speaker holds little sway. However, given our history, and the broader goal of strengthening democracy that Imran Khan must strive to achieve, is rewarding Pervaiz Elahi really a step in the right direction for Naya Pakistan?

Pervaiz Elahi and his PML-Q rose to power by jumping ship when the PML-N needed them the most to be puppets to an autocrat. In his own book Pakistan: A Personal History, Khan writes about how the PML-Q cajoled away good candidates from his party with the help of the establishment and refers to them as ‘Musharraf’s PML-Q’. He points out how the time after the 2002 elections (won by the PML-Q with much help from Musharraf) was the most difficult time for his own party. In a speech Imran Khan called Pervaiz Elahi the biggest thief of Punjab while a decade ago he filed a complaint against him regarding allegations of corruption before NAB. Why then compromise on Pervaiz Elahi? How will we strengthen democracy if we continue to reward those whose past bears the sickening skeleton of dictatorship in their closet? What impact does this have on Imran Khan’s message that he won’t tolerate the corrupt? The PTI should not tolerate those who do not display a firm commitment to democracy since that is also what Imran once stood for.

My hope is that Imran Khan builds on the good choices he has made in this short period of time while mitigating and negating the bad. Many have written about the goals he must achieve during his five years in government. One of them must be the long goal: to strengthen and entrench democracy in Pakistan. That means not fostering or rewarding those that have forsaken it.

It may be asking too much but given Imran Khan’s story to becoming Prime Minister of this country, it may just be possible.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2018.

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