Are we heading toward anarchy?

In it seventy-four years of existence, Pakistan has witnessed many political upheavals, severe economic challenges and strategic convulsions in the form of two major wars and several serious military encounters with India. At the political level, Pakistan has alternated between military rule and emaciated political governance. After the 1971 war with India the Eastern Wing separated from us. All these events had a serious impact on the integrity and development of the country. What is worse we continue to falter as much, if not more, and successive Pakistani leadership has failed to stabilise the country. Not realising that the agonising and adverse impact of our chequered history is felt over generations, but we never seem to learn.

Imran Khan, clearly one of the most popular leaders with a huge following, has taken a highly confrontational attitude toward his political opponents both when he was the Prime Minister and now as leader of opposition. His plan to launch the “long march” on Islamabad is another unfortunate continuation of it.

Seriously, it is difficult to comprehend what exactly the PTI leadership is trying to achieve by putting this type of pressure apart from bringing the national elections a few months forward. Whereas, the hard reality is unbridled opposition accentuates chaos, making governance extremely difficult and warps people’s perspective and their values. This could lead to uncertain conditions that add to people’s misery. Experience of our own and other countries’ leaders has demonstrated that inflated ego has a huge downside. It makes the leader lose sight of the bigger picture and works against the very values that he and his party claim to stand for. In short, an inflated ego if not managed sensibly could be a major reason for a leader or his party underperforming and, in extreme cases, its downfall despite certain positive attributes in him and his associates. For he may embark on a course and take decisions that are detrimental not only to himself but the country, as those surrounding the leader can exploit him to serve their ends.

The more serious aspect of an inflated ego is that such leaders refuse to hear contrary to what they want to believe. They only want to hear news or perspectives they want to, as was the case with Donald Trump. For example, a leader would spend hours on social media especially if the medium is heavily tilted in his favour and a broad section of the youth idolises him. Moreover, it is not easy to get over an inflated ego especially when the leader is surrounded by people who do not have the standing to advise him sincerely without fear of inviting his displeasure.

Of course, leaders develop inflated ego when they achieve real success in nation building, as Imran Khan clearly had in public service, building cancer hospital and creating programmes for the uplift of the poor and downtrodden. But past success in certain fields is no guarantee for future success in a different area of activity especially governance at the national level where economy, political stability and strategic coherence are essential elements for the country’s future. Thus, the failure or success of a national leader is closely associated with the country’s destiny. So, the straying away of a leader in a direction that could invite chaos has serious consequences for the nation.

The same counsel is applicable to PML-N leadership. Mariam Nawaz does attract huge crowds and uses the platform to blast Imran Khan and eulogise his father Nawaz Sharif. Several questions come to mind. How long the people of Pakistan will be fed with self-centred meaningless political discourse when the people are desperately looking to leaders to address their immediate basic needs and country’s major challenges. Furthermore, we cannot live in the past, especially when there is not much to be proud of.

What is PML-N’s policy on reviving the economy which is facing its worst crisis? It is a currency crisis, debt and banking crisis, all coming together. Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has given broad parameters of how he plans to deal with these but it is going to be a rough ride and for this the country needs internal peace and lot of sacrifices. It is very much possible that the global financial situation could give rise to higher inflation making it difficult for the government’s precarious political majority in parliament to sustain for too long. In that situation fortunes could change.

The army leadership has taken a clear position and is staying away from politics. Despite their categorical stand certain politicians want to drag the institution in, as was the attempt by the Governor of Punjab. It was indeed a very crude and rather immature move on his part to seek army’s assistance in handling the Punjab political crisis which was brushed aside. Apparently, this was deliberately handled in this unprofessional manner to delay the formation of the Punjab government. It shows to what extent the opposition leadership is prepared to create hurdles in the PML-N government consolidating its power.

Another disturbing aspect is that there is increasing terrorist threat manifesting in the form of recurring TTP attacks in South and North Waziristan. The Balochistan Liberation Army is raising its head in Gwadar and other parts of Balochistan. It is not clear if the present government would engage with these militant groups in dialogue or leave it to the army leadership to conduct military operations as in the past.

Presently, various impulses of the Pakistani people are in full play. Imran Khan’s version of the ideal Pakistan however abstract does attract youth who are impatient for change. They are disillusioned with the system and with the leadership. They feel justice is not being done to them and elections alone are not the answer. Whereas, people cannot be fed with empty slogans and rhetoric alone. With greater experience in governance and support of PPP and allied parties the burden falls on PML-N leadership to steer the country toward stability and peace.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2022.

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