Is PTI reinforcement of the failure?

There is nothing solid to yearn for a return of PTI; difficult decisions were delayed till the cost was unbearable

Most people like me supported Imran Khan (IK) for his nationalist credentials, his pro-Islamic orientation, his charisma, his ‘relative’ integrity, his spine to stand up to the powerful; and the fact that he was ‘comparatively’ better choice. Most stick with him because the cabal ‘imposed’ is despised. And I have said it repeatedly. In the last column, after discussing loss of Pakistan’s regional and international relevance (perceptually if not actually), I had promised to explore two paradigms. Is return of PTI reinforcement of failure? And what are political contours of post-PTI Pakistan?

A quick glance over the PTI rule throws out a mixed bag. The Party fought Covid with tenacity and artfulness, saving the country from catastrophic consequences that befell neighbouring India. Its initiative of ‘Sehat Insaaf Card’ is enabling most have-nots get quality medical treatment. IK rings a bell in the so-called Ummah. And PTI cadre/supporters differentiate between IK and Party, insulating him from PTI’s countless failures.

Other than that, there is nothing solid to yearn for a return of the PTI. Difficult decisions were delayed till the cost was unbearable; economy was mishandled. It is unfair to put all blame for the recent economic fiascoes on the PDM, PTI squarely shares the blame. There was no diligent and coordinated team work by party-apparatchik to improve governance; chasing the corrupt remained an obsession with no pro-Pakistan outcomes and no results at all; precious time, which could be devoted to improving governance, was spent in useless filibustering; and there was too much bluster against all state institutions at some point, including the Army, the Judiciary, the media, the Election Commission, the bureaucracy; and no effort was made to patch up and have semblance of working relations with the opposition.

IK’s foreign policy threw relations with Saudi Arabia, the GCC countries, the West and America in tail-spin, as there was too much unnecessary rhetoric directed at unseen demons. Politics under PTI was one of confrontation with no desire for reconciliation, the ask of our polarised landscape. Corruption has seeped into PTI rank and file. KP was effectively controlled by youthful ‘District Coordinators’ with no idea of governance, paralysing the state machinery. De-politicisation of police, the feather in the cap of first PTI-led provincial government (2013-18) was brutally reversed.

Once a Party stalwart sought my opinion during the cited term, about Party performance and image. I appreciated PTI-led initiatives of police de-politicisation and reforms in revenue, education and healthcare, adding that these were invisible to the youth bulge, who cared about job creation. And that the Party needed visible symbols to win the next elections. As an example, I mentioned Shahbaz Sharif building Rawalpindi metro in a little under a year. That sin, on my part, ‘perhaps’ reinforced the idea of Peshawar metro…the disaster that will mock PTI forever, given its single-most defect of creating bottlenecks in traffic flow due to its faulty alignment, bad design and poor construction quality.

One would have expected IK to transform – on assuming power – into a statesman after years of agitational politics and abusing all and sundry from the top of a container. That did not happen, is not happening and is not likely to happen. Old habits die hard. At seventy-plus you can hardly change. Seeing the youth and the middle class firmly behind, his rhetoric is escalatory, more divisive and dangerously polarising. National institutions like Judiciary and the Pakistan Army are subjected to seething and mostly uncalled for criticism by Party cadre/sympathisers. And apart from symbolic one-liners, IK has mostly remained silent on this propaganda’s profane proliferation on social media. And that has forced a rethink among many, whose hearts beat with Pakistan.

My sources ‘authoritatively’ confirm IK had agreed to delay the Azadi long-march (25 May) for another two days, once three important PTI personalities were apprised of the behind-the-scenes efforts to get an election date from the government. Having agreed in Party meeting, IK took a U-turn the next day, ‘ostensibly under some superstitious spell’ and decided to go ahead calling the delay as truck kee batti tactics. And after burning large swaths of the green median on Motorway from Swabi to Rawalpindi, the Party abruptly and inexplicably called off the march, having converged on Islamabad.

There is something diametrically different shaping up contemporary Pakistan’s political landscape. IK/PTI rides the wave of support by Pakistanis of all shades, unhappy with rule by ashhrafiyya – the elite, civil and military. The popular pulse sees him a victim and a savior who is the ‘last’ option among the political filth Pakistan sadly carries. PTI calculates filibustering, thundering speeches at regular jalsas and overall agitation would keep its followers riveted to the Party. And given elections, it would sweep the polls. It will not.

Winning elections and converting youthful bulge into votes are quite different things. One wonders how soon the Party forgot when ‘electables’ were delivered to them by the same ‘neutrals’. How the ‘neutrals’ cobbled together a workable coalition for them? How they were guided and mentored through various crises of their own making, and how the same ‘neturals’ put their reputation on line to go out of the way in helping the PTI run affairs of the state, for which it was not prepared, and is not prepared.

There is no serious discourse by/among most PTI bigwigs, other than dealing with trivial issues on a daily basis. There is no ‘shadow government’ as cited in previous columns. Like the previous weeks and months, Party stalwarts still paint a rosier-than-reality picture to their demi-god, hoping to sweep through the complex politics of Pakistan without ‘any’ support.

Above considered and very sincerely, in the interest of Pakistan and PTI, IK the second time around, would be more of the same and his return would be ‘reinforcement of the failure’. And in that case, the ‘(s)electors’ have to look beyond PTI. The only chance left with starry-eyed PTI cadre is diligent political work and a blue print for governance that would be ‘suggested’ in the coming weeks. PTI also needs to evaluate if IK – the icon – would confine to being rahbar-e-tehreek leaving governance to capable hands.

To quote from Ayaz Amir esq, this troubled country is left with only one option, and it is for that option to rise to the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 7^th, 2022.

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