Give PTI a chance
Instead of criticising Imran Khan, we must help his party in bringing about the change.
PHOTO: FILE
We, as a nation, tend to think negatively. We rarely think positive. All our governments — whether they are democracies or dictatorships — have miserably failed. Our intellectuals are quick to find fault and hardly ever praise anyone, and they praise only those with whom they have political affiliations.
Ever thought why are we an underdeveloped nation after 67 years of being independent? Our previous rulers were corrupt and that they gave us nothing is a commonly known complaint. Nobel laureate Dr Abdus Salam was not accepted here on religious grounds. There are those who spread doubts even about the Father of the Nation. Under such a situation, who will bring about the required positive change?
The PTI-led Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government, led by Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak, had given 90 days to the bureaucracy to bring about reforms. It succeeded in introducing accountability, the right to information bill, installed a biometric system in the education sector, facilitated the establishment of the first mobile court and above all, conducted the by-elections in a peaceful manner, all in a short span of time.
All this has been achieved in the face of several internal problems. The PTI’s coalition partner, the QWP (a coalition partner of the PML-N in the centre), as well as the opposition JUI-F have openly criticised the PTI since its first day in power. The federal government is not helping matters through long spells of power outages of as long as 20 hours in the rural areas.
The law and order situation too has been in dire straits since well before the PTI came into power and after Khattak was sworn in, the attacks in K-P have become more frequent. In such a scenario, when the PML-N talks of holding negotiations with the Taliban, no one objects to it but when Imran Khan suggested peace talks in the past, there was angry rhetoric against him and he is taken as a Taliban apologist.
I think the PTI does have the will to bring about the change and indeed it is trying to do so but the change cannot be brought about in a short span of time. It needs patience and endurance, and we, instead of criticising Imran Khan, must help his party in bringing about this change. The PTI has engaged our youth and above all, it has brought in hope, for Pakistan and its future.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 16th, 2013.
Ever thought why are we an underdeveloped nation after 67 years of being independent? Our previous rulers were corrupt and that they gave us nothing is a commonly known complaint. Nobel laureate Dr Abdus Salam was not accepted here on religious grounds. There are those who spread doubts even about the Father of the Nation. Under such a situation, who will bring about the required positive change?
The PTI-led Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government, led by Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak, had given 90 days to the bureaucracy to bring about reforms. It succeeded in introducing accountability, the right to information bill, installed a biometric system in the education sector, facilitated the establishment of the first mobile court and above all, conducted the by-elections in a peaceful manner, all in a short span of time.
All this has been achieved in the face of several internal problems. The PTI’s coalition partner, the QWP (a coalition partner of the PML-N in the centre), as well as the opposition JUI-F have openly criticised the PTI since its first day in power. The federal government is not helping matters through long spells of power outages of as long as 20 hours in the rural areas.
The law and order situation too has been in dire straits since well before the PTI came into power and after Khattak was sworn in, the attacks in K-P have become more frequent. In such a scenario, when the PML-N talks of holding negotiations with the Taliban, no one objects to it but when Imran Khan suggested peace talks in the past, there was angry rhetoric against him and he is taken as a Taliban apologist.
I think the PTI does have the will to bring about the change and indeed it is trying to do so but the change cannot be brought about in a short span of time. It needs patience and endurance, and we, instead of criticising Imran Khan, must help his party in bringing about this change. The PTI has engaged our youth and above all, it has brought in hope, for Pakistan and its future.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 16th, 2013.