TEHRAN - Much to the chagrin of hawks in Washington and Riyadh, neighbors Iran and Pakistan have reaffirmed their commitment to bolster bilateral ties and open a new chapter in their relationship.
The ties between the two countries, although historic, have been marked by ambiguity in recent years, especially during the previous government led by Nawaz Sharif, who was seen heavily tilted towards Riyadh. With the new government in Islamabad now, led by the charismatic cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, Iran-Pakistan ties are expected to become stronger.
As a sign of growing proximity between the two countries, Iran’s foreign minister Javad Zarif became the first foreign official to visit Pakistan this week since the change of guard in Islamabad. Zarif, who has been to Pakistan eight times, held wide-ranging deliberations with the top political and military leadership of Pakistan, including prime minister, foreign minister, army chief and parliament speaker.
In a tweet, the social media-savvy foreign minister termed the meetings “fruitful”, in which the two sides laid emphasis on “expanding bilateral, regional, and global partnership”, adding that neighbors were Iran’s “priority”. Zarif’s visit to Pakistan came at a crucial time when the relations between Islamabad and Washington are undergoing a tectonic shift, and Pakistan is finally coming out of the ominous shadow of U.S. and Saudi Arabia.
Imran Khan led government has made a great start by outlining its foreign policies very clearly. On Friday, following the meeting between Zarif and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pakistan said it supported Iran’s “principled stance” regarding its nuclear deal with major world powers. “Pakistan stands with Iran in this hour of need,” Qureshi said, joining the growing league of countries that have backed Iran’s peaceful nuclear energy program and refused to buckle under the U.S. pressure to cut trade ties with Tehran.
An official statement issued by Khan’s office said the prime minister received the Iranian foreign minister for a meeting, who conveyed to him the greetings and best wishes of the people and leadership of Iran on assuming office.
Zarif stated that Iran wished continued progress and prosperity to the people of Pakistan and delivered a message of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, inviting Khan for the upcoming Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) summit in Iran in October 2018. Both Pakistan and Iran are members of ACD and Iran currently holds the chair of the organisation.
Khan thanked the Iranian supreme leader’s support for Kashmiris in their struggle for self-determination and the manner in which Pakistan’s Independence Day was celebrated in Iran this year, the statement said, adding that Pakistan and Iran were “connected by inseparable bonds of historic, religious and cultural affinities”.
Zarif also held formal talks with his counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi during which they discussed wide-ranging issues. Both the sides underlined the importance of deepening cooperation in areas of mutual interest. The statement issued by Pakistan’s foreign office said the two officials held detailed discussions on regional and global issues — including the situation in Afghanistan and America’s unilateral decision to withdraw from the JCPOA.
It was agreed that the next round of Bilateral Political Consultations and the Joint Economic Commission will be held at early date.
While supporting Iran’s principled stance on the Iran nuclear deal, Qureshi expressed hope that remaining parties to the agreement would uphold their commitments in letter and spirit. “This is important given IAEA’s repeated verification that Iran has strictly adhered to the terms of agreement,” the foreign minister said.
A few weeks ago, Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal had stressed that Pakistan reserves the right to ‘pursue legitimate economic and commercial interests’ with Iran in the wake of re-imposition of sanctions on Tehran by U.S. “We are examining the implications of the U.S.’ re-imposed sanctions on Iran,” he said, “however, Pakistan, being a sovereign state, reserves the right to pursue legitimate economic and commercial interests while respecting the international legal regime.”
Meanwhile, on Sunday, in a fresh blow to Pakistan-U.S. relations, the U.S. military said it has made a final decision to annul $300 million aid to Pakistan that had been suspended over Islamabad’s perceived failure to take decisive action against militants. President Donald Trump had in his New Year tweet lambasted Pakistan and threatened to withhold military aid.
These developments are significant and must be seen in the context of changing regional dynamics – Pakistan getting closer to China, Iran and Pakistan embarking on a new journey, and the new government in Islamabad defying the coercive and manipulative tactics of Trump administration.
Imran Khan, who has on many occasions in the past criticized America’s policy for South Asia, had also opposed the idea of Pakistan sending troops to Yemen to fight Houthi rebels. Khan’s foreign policy, observer believe, is rooted in pragmatism and national interest. Better relations with Iran, they stress, are in Pakistan’s best national interest.
Following his historic victory in general election, Khan had vowed to improve ties with all regional countries, including Iran. Unlike his predecessor, he has shown an inclination to maintain a healthy balance in ties between regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran.
During the meeting between Khan and Iranian envoy to Pakistan recently, Khan also expressed his willingness to revive the Iran-Pakistan gap pipeline project or ‘peace pipeline’, which can play a key role in resolving the energy crisis facing Pakistan. It is a historic opportunity for the two countries to transform their relationship into energy partners.
Anti-corruption and social welfare become the core issues
Perwez Shafi
The victory of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI or Pakistan Movement for Justice) in the July 25 general elections has led to euphoria and aroused great hopes among the people. Led by the cricket-star-turned-politician Imran Khan, the PTI emerged as the largest party with 116 out of 270 contested seats when the official results were released on July 28 (total contested seats in the National Assembly are 272 but one candidate was killed and another constituency’s election was postponed).
The losing parties and their leaders immediately cried foul and demanded re-election. Indian and Western governments, think tanks, and media outlets deeply disappointed at the outcome as usual blamed military interference for tilting toward the winner.
The magnitude of change brought about by the people can be appreciated from the historical context that Pakistan has lived through for the last five decades. The corrupt, feudal two-party duopoly took turns to plunder state resources. They had a stranglehold on the political system interspersed by military dictatorships. Under the two parties, Pakistan gained notoriety as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
It was a historic win for Imran Khan and his party. The PTI ended dominance of the center-right Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) headed by Nawaz Sharif since the early-1980s, and center-left Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) formed in the late-1960s and now headed by Asif Zardari and his son Bilawal Zardari.
Nawaz Sharif and the Zardaris lead feudalistic, hereditary, and corrupt parties. Their sons and daughters become head of parties, then prime minister or president. They have always preferred personal interest over that of the country’s. In fact, politics is big business for them. They spend money to acquire political power and then abuse it to entrench themselves and to make more money. Thus the cycle continues endlessly.
They looted the national treasury and stashed away billions of dollars in foreign accounts and bought prime real estate in Dubai and London. They have traditionally opposed such basic services as education, health care, and clean water for the people. Being feudal, they think that people will escape their control if these services are provided, hence undermining their “right to rule.” With their immense wealth, they not only bought voters but also judges, corporate heads, and heads of governmental organizations. They would mobilize their cronies and government machinery to steal elections.
Their massive theft and corruption drove the economy into the ground. The acquisition of foreign loans to meet routine government expenses had led to an economic meltdown. Such loans are difficult to repay now.
They have openly supported Indian and Western agendas at the expense of Pakistan’s vital interests. On numerous occasions, their cronies were caught red-handed with such anti-state activities but went scot-free for “lack of evidence” in court. This was because the military supported them from behind the scenes. Since the military is the only organized institution and has a relatively loose check on politicians, these “civilian” rulers (Sharif/Zardari) es-caped this oversight on their activities by cooperating with India and Western regimes. Hence they served as proxies for Pakistan’s enemies. The masses found no respite from them as they openly spent money to buy votes and loyalties in elections. Due to their opulent lifestyle — looting of the country’s wealth and building vast palatial homes and buying properties inside and outside the country — they remained totally indifferent to the masses’ suffering. Over the last 50 years people became cynical and despondent and lost all hope for change in government affairs.
In the first weeks of 2018, then PTI Chairman Imran Khan predicted that if the first-ever civilian transition of power in Pakistan is allowed to happen, then PTI will win a majority in the general election later in the year and that, if elected prime minister, he will hold money launderers who looted the country of its assets account-able for their crimes. After winning the election, as he envisioned he would, his most immediate priority appears to be balance of payments solvency, a crisis that largely emerged over time due to the corrupt practices of career politicians who were burnishing their overseas bank accounts with kickbacks from foreign loans as well as “service fees” from the US War of Terror.
Imran Khan’s win must be viewed against the above nightmarish background and the stranglehold of the two corrupt parties to thwart any change. Khan is charismatic, honest, goal-oriented, self-confident and free from an inferiority complex vis-à-vis the West — a disease that afflicts almost all other Pakistani politicians. He has seen how governments can be run efficiently and honestly for the benefit of the people.
He realized Pakistan’s potential early on but knew it was held back by corruption. So from day one of his political career in 1996, when he formed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, he concentrated on two issues: ending corruption and providing social justice. He advocated a system based on meritocracy. For the first time in Pakistan’s history, he has awakened the middle class and women. Thus, against the backdrop of corruption, and the feudal political system, Khan’s call was like a breath of fresh air.
He already enjoyed face-recognition because of his days as captain of the Pakistan cricket team, which won the World Cup in 1992. Soon afterwards his mother died of cancer; it shook him immensely. So he decided to build a world-class cancer hospital asking for no government funding. He visited almost every city and village asking for donations from ordinary people. They reposed their trust in him and donated generously. Building the hospital also raised his reputation as an honest and clean person.
Gradually and painstakingly, he gathered a good and educated team around him. The PTI nearly won the 2013 election but he had to wait for another five years. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as Nawaz Sharif’s name surfaced in the infamous Panama Papers in early-2017. They revealed he owned expensive real estate in London through offshore companies owned by his sons. For years Sharif and his family kept denying they had any property outside Pakistan.
Khan petitioned the Supreme Court. After three months’ hearings where the Sharif family admitted the properties belonged to them, the apex court disqualified Sharif. He failed to divulge where he got the money from to purchase properties in the most expensive part of London or how the money was sent there. Sharif was accused under section 9(a)(iv) of the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 that relates to corrupt practices while section 9(a)(v) is about owning assets disproportionate to known sources of income.
The court declared that the prosecution had shifted the burden of proof onto the accused. Similar legislation has been promulgated in a number of other countries.
Instead of providing evidence of the money trail, they kept politicizing the hearings by attacking Imran Khan’s persona, the higher judiciary, and military for their predicament. If they had provided evidence of the money trail, they would have been convicted of looting national assets and money laundering. So they adopted a strategy to cry foul and claim “political victimization” by the judiciary and military to gain people’s sympathy.
They used other disruptive tactics: deliberately delaying the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) court proceedings. The hope was that they would be elected again in 2018. Soon the army chief and chief justice would also have completed their tenures and they would replace them with new and more pliant individuals. Further, new legislation would be enacted to overturn the judicial disqualification. They thought the crisis would be over and soon the luxurious lifestyle and absolute power would resume.
However, unlike the Shah of Iran or Marcos of the Philippines, the Supreme Court judgement was an official stamp of certification of their corruption. Two weeks before the election, on July 7, Sharif, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Safdar were convicted and sentenced to jail terms of 10 years, seven, and one year respectively. They are now lodged in the notorious Rawalpindi Adiala jail. The judge also ordered forfeiture of their property in the Avenfield Apartments, Park Lane, London and imposed £8 million fine on Nawaz Sharif and £2 million on daughter Maryam.
In his first address to the nation, 8-19-2018, PM Imran Khan spent some moments describing the luxuries enjoyed by the prime minister at the people’s expense. Of the 80 vehicles at the behest of the previous prime minister, Imran Khan indicated that he will auction off all but two and put the proceeds into the national exchequer. In addition, he pledged to convert the Prime Minister House in Islamabad into a world-class university.
Khan’s announcement at rallies to hold the rich and powerful political rulers accountable bore fruit even before he came to power. Thus, the whole political discourse was changed from traditional (business as usual) to one of “rise up and clean house” by throwing the corrupt rulers out. The masses’ consciousness and awareness was raised to a new level where they were looking for an honest and clean leader, who sacrificed personal interest for the country and who would provide basic amenities and better opportunities for people.
PTI won the election and has formed a coalition government. People have high hopes of positive change primarily because PTI leaders have set a high bar for performance. The immediate crisis for Khan’s new government is resuscitation of the economy because it needs an immediate injection of $12–20 billion. Some critical decisions have to be made: whether go to the IMF or find alternate sources of funds through creative financing including motivating overseas Pakistanis?
The first issue is the balance-of-payments crisis, which threatens stability of the currency and the government’s ability to repay debts or pay for imports. The budget deficit has grown steadily over the past five years, from 4% to 10% of GDP due to skyrocketing imports, especially rising oil prices. As a result, foreign currency reserves have declined to under $10 billion, barely enough for two months’ imports while export earnings dropped from $25 billion in 2013 to $22 billion in 2017, according to the State Bank of Pakistan. Meanwhile Pakistan’s currency, the rupee has devalued four times since December depreciating from Rs.105 to Rs.125 to the US dollar in August.
One of the main reasons the US is objecting to Pakistan’s application for an IMF loan is that it is opposed to Pakistan paying Chinese creditors first who have loaned $62 billion for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infra-structure projects of highways, railways, bridges, and power plants across the country. The just-ousted PML-N government’s secrecy surrounding the CPEC agreement has raised eyebrows in international markets as well as in Pakistan. Though Khan supported CPEC, he has insisted that agreements will be made public when he assumes office. That would also show the loan amount, interest rates, and the magnitude of annual debt-servicing burden on Pakistan.
Total debt-servicing projections including CPEC projects stand at $31.3 billion until 2022–2023, which far exceed export earnings. These will increase when other sources of income or loans are taken to service earlier loans. Chinese loans and debt servicing have saddled Pakistan with unsustainable growth. If CPEC is in Pakistan’s interest why does Islamabad need to incur additional loans when it serves China’s empire-building projects? This is because Pakistan’s location saves considerable cost compared to the long and vulnerable sea routes. In addition, the previous PML-N government obtained total foreign loans of Rs1.2 trillion, exceeding its original target of Rs810 billion for the outgoing fiscal year by around 48% to finance its kickbacks and corruption. As a result, foreign loans have exploded in the last 10 years and with it the ability to service debt have also reached critical proportions.
After reviving the economy, Imran Khan said he will hold all those responsible for corruption and white collar crimes, looting and plundering the country, accountable. After exposing Nawaz Sharif, he needs to go after Asif Zardari and his PPP cronies who openly indulged in money laundering schemes, siphoning away hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars. This was Imran’s main slogan over the last 20 years and people voted for this very reason.
Another problem is severe shortage of water: for drinking, agriculture and industrial usage. While India kept building large dams on rivers in Kashmir that flow into Pakistan thus diverting water away, Pakistan did not complain to the World Bank. This is in violation of the Indus Water Treaty brokered by the World Bank in 1960. Further, Pakistan did not build its own dams; the last big one was constructed in the 1960s.
This is dereliction of duty. People expect that Musharraf, Sharif and Zardari, who ruled for the last 18 years, should not only be held accountable but also prosecuted for criminal negligence. Building dams, however, requires huge sums of money that will put further strain on the economy.
Another important issue is to restore mutual trust between civil-military relations. There is no doubt that the military is the most organized and powerful institution, which dominates all other institutions of state and society. As the veteran politician Shaikh Rashid said, all politicians have been reared in the nursery run by the military. The problem arises when these politicians grow up and gain some self-confidence and they bgin to think they can either dictate or pursue their own interests without regard to military interests.
Sometimes the military has to clean up its own mess decades later. During General Zia al-Haq’s time (1979–1988), the military created the Muhajir Qaumi Movement (MQM) led by Altaf Hussain. After gaining some experience, the MQM created its armed terrorist gangs that held Karachi hostage for almost four decades. The MQM had government support during General Musharraf’s rule. Finally in 2013, after changes in the military and because of changed circumstances, cleanup operations began breaking up MQM’s armed and terrorist wings altogether.
Similarly, alarmed by the growth of goodwill for the Islamic Revolution in Iran, at the behest of the US, General Zia created Lashkar-e-Jhangvi whose sole mission was to brand the Shi‘is as kafirs and legitimate targets for killing. They were given support and an environment was created in which Shi‘is could be harassed and killed openly with no questions asked. Now the military has started cleanup operations and the fight continues to this day. The LJ terrorists first fled to the tribal areas of Waziristan but under continued pressure, they shifted to Afghanistan. From there they occasionally attack military and soft civilian targets including non-Muslim minorities that result in Pakistan’s name being tarnished.
In the recent elections, the military again appeared to be supporting right-wing extremists, the Tehrik-e Labbayk Pakistan (TLP), but they were unable to win despite garnering appreciable number of votes. It would serve Pakistan well if the military were to cease experiments in social engineering. Such activity only creates more divisions in society. Let the natural process evolve whereby morally upright, self-confident, and patriotic politicians would be able to grow.
At the same time, instead of focusing on the army’s power, authority, and funds, politicians should build their own stature intellectually, morally, and ethically such that they are able to analyze social and political problems, conceive solutions, and convince the masses of their efficacy. This will help build their own independent base of support among the people. After all in 2016 when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was confronted by a Western-backed military coup, it was the masses that stood against the military to defend freedom and civilian rule.
So politicians have to be realistic. When politicians and the military gradually reach a meeting of minds, the latter may then cede some of its powers and authority — anathema now — to other institutions of state. All countries that have adopted this natural process have reaped the benefits of unity and social cohesion and become stronger. Turkey and China are good examples.
Imran Khan is making all the right moves and has the support of the people. His ascent to power is similar to the rise in the early-1950s of Mohammad Mossadeq in Iran through elections. Both came to power despite the depressing political background and circumstances. Mossadeq nationalized British Petroleum and took steps to uplift the population from poverty and illiteracy. Time will tell whether like Mossadeq, Imran Khan and his team would be able to take bold steps to resuscitate the economy, hold corrupt politicians accountable, build dams, and then turn attention to the equally urgent task of human development and education.
Pakistan: Towards Understanding the Challenges of Political Change and Future-Making
By Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja
People have spoken out loud and quite logically, Imran Khan is the elected candidate to lead a futuristic system of political governance. To discard the incurable resentment against the former indicted criminals turned politicians, people of Pakistan have rejected them at the ballot box. The July 25 national elections under a caretaking non-partisan government were a history-making event in Pakistan’s formal history. Had this happened some sixty years earlier, Pakistan could have been a leading model of democratic norms, social and economic cohesion and political stability to lead other nations in Southwest Asia. For over 60 years, the so called Pakistani politicians – former neo-colonial landlords were masters of lies and deception – inept, greedy and historically egomaniacs who stole time and opportunities from the young and educated generations to foster political change and productivity and make Pakistan a stable nation. While other progressive nations of the world encouraged participation and paved favorable opportunities to enlist new educated and intelligent brand of the young generations, Pakistani political leaders were naïve and indifferent and guilty of having plunged the morally and intellectually conscientious nation into abyss. None of the Islamic parties appear to have any worthwhile activism in the outcome of the elections. Have they succumbed to be impotent for the future? Imran Khan, the new elected would be Prime Minister wants to rebuild a New Pakistan – a highly promising ideal and slogan under unusual political circumstances. Pakistan desperately needs a new constitution and new political system of governance, a revitalization of socio-economic and political integration between all the cultural diversities of its people in Punjab, Baluchistan, Pakhtoonva and Sindh. Pakistanis lost East Pakistan to India and surrendered in 1971 because they were foolish, corrupt and leaderless. The national integration, security, end to foreign aid and strategic cooperation, and political cohesion of the country must assume priorities over other major policy agendas. To dispel the history’s malicious ironies, Imran Khan would need to widen the scope of his thinking and strategic planning to encompass the prevalent political realities of Pakistan.
What Needs to be Changed?
Nothing is normal in today’s Pakistan. Institutionalized corruption is a favorite perversion to attract people’s support for new ideals of change and anti-corruption psychology. Most indicted criminals like Nawaz Sharif, Bhuttos, Zardrai - all wanted to serve the noble ideals of political fairness, honesty, socio-economic stability, human rights and law and justice. The problem was, none of them had such qualities and characteristic in their own life and profile. How could they have given something to others what was not part of their own life and possessions? One cannot combine wickedness and righteousness in one human character. To make Imran Khan comparatively a credible candidate for genuinely soft approaches to articulate a sustainable compound culture of new thinking, new ideals and new strategies for a New Pakistan, it is imperative that Mr. Khan must know and fully comprehend the nature and scope of the sickness that continued for decades to rob the nation of its due opportunities for change and future-making – a deliberate pillage leading to massive destruction of the socio-economic, moral, intellectual and political infrastructures of the Pakistani nation. None of the former criminals are punished visa-a-vis their crimes against the nation. Mr. Khan does have first–hand knowledge and observations of lot of such accumulated pillage over the decades..
Mr. Khan appears to be patriotic person with immense know-how and abilities but he must realize rebuilding a nation is not the individual task but a collective formulation of wide range of thinkers, intellectuals, planners and expertise to work in a team and undertake proactive progressive assignments from top to bottom, not the other way in Pakistan. The dishonesty underlying the Pakistan’s political landscape is nothing new or unknown. Allow this conscientious author to say: WHO IS NOT DISHONEST IN PAKISTANI POLITICS? If you get a chance to read “Pakistan: Enigma of Change” (series of articles -1999 onward in Media Monitors Network, USA), and “Pakistan: Leaders who could not Lead” (10/2007, Media Monitors Network, USA; “Pakistan: Leaders who stabbed the Nation”, 2010; “Pakistan : Anatomy of Turbulent 68th Independence Day”, “Pakistan in Quest of Navigational Change” (2014), by this author, you should have no rational problem to understand the realities of today’s sadistic politics of Pakistan.
Towards the Imperatives of Change and Reconstruction
For over 70 years, Pakistan had no viable system of political governance corresponding to the moral, intellectual and political genius of the masses. The ruling elite and the people lived in conflicting time zones generating wide gulfs of mistrust, foreign influence, corruption, military dictators, and disdained politicians lacking sense of honesty and accountability with no appeal to reason or missing indicator of live conscience to be serving the public good. How do you change such a filthy and stinking piles of socio-political culture whereby all the well known thugs and criminals have looted the resources, lifelines and positive energies of the people just for their own good?Mr. Khan must face the existing realities to THINK of the future or he will become part of the piled garbage – a junk history of the nation. He must enlarge the scope of proactive thinking and enlist people of knowledge, intellect moral and professional caliber and those without any stains on their conscience to help him carve a beginning for a new future.He must be careful not include any pathological liars and interlocutors who were part of darkest chapters of Pakistan’s contemporary history. In parliamentary governance, Imran Khan with 115 seats at the National Assembly would require 22 more elected members to have 137 numbers for a political governance. There should be no horse-trading if he believes in an innovative strategy to evolve a New Pakistan.It will be imperative to put all those egoistic rulers of the past out of business. Their accumulative dishonesty underlying the failure of politics was clear and obvious.Perhaps, educated and intelligent Pakistanis living abroad could be more helpful to Imran Khan if he is serious about developing a New and people-oriented 21st century democratic Pakistan. Often historical errors of judgment and mistakes are irretrievable. If truth and logic has its place in the future-making of New Pakistan, it must have a new Constitution, Presidential system of political governance, a non-partisan strong community of law and justice,retrained elite in the civil services, independent foreign policies and constantly changing and progressive strategies to plan for the future and make it happen out of the planned ideas and workable ideals. Experts and intellectuals who deal with future-making must know the weaknesses ofa non-productive socio-economic culture, highly corrupted civil elite and strength of the role of the masses for a durable future.Nothing will change or happen on its own without any critical thinking and prompt diagnostic action with proper follow-up methods of meeting the end purpose.
To change and enhance political reformation and developing a new presidential form of governance, Imran Khan would urgently need a coalition of well educated, intelligent and honest proactive people of young generation to build a foundation of ideas and ideals and workable strategies based on refined plans for future-making. It is apparent that after this highly contested election, the nation will not accept normalcy of having previous indicted thugs, criminals and killers as part of the solution for future-making. Imran Khan must be careful not to indulge in melodramatic claims for the future; it could undermine his political future without making it happen on the ground. He should not rely on party loyalists or other seasonal collaborators but those enriched with sense of honesty and obligation to work in team and usher a collective plan of action for planned change and progressively sustainable results. Nation are not build by chance or by the few but of a collective thinking and action plan to make the future-happen and to monitor its progress continuously with fullest accountability for the policy outcomes. Good judgments and logical pursuits seek rational and balanced strategies to ensure collective progress and accountability, lack of such imperatives eventually find failure, imbalance and treachery to the ideals of nation-building. Given his sense of proclaimed honesty and clean political character, Mr. Imran Khan must know the 21st century requisites of creative and effective leadership and must not allow self-ego turned into a kind of cancer that could consume the self and indulge in perversion of the challenging realities of Pakistan’s future-making.
Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution and international affairs with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution: Approaches to Understand the Current Issues and Future-Making. Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany, October 2017.
With the federal government as well as two of the four provinces—Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab—under his belt, Imran Khan, leader of the Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaf (PTI) party is a greatly satisfied person. His 22-year-long struggle for change from the two mafia families—the Zardari-Bhutto combine and the Sharifs (no sharifs, those crooks)—has finally borne fruit.
Even in Baluchistan where PTI gained only four seats, talks of coalition with the Baluchistan Awami Party (BAP), winner of the largest number of seats (15) in the province, are underway.
PTI victories can be attributed to Imran Khan’s hard work, charisma and steely determination in the face of entrenched interests that were determined to steal this election as well (like in 2013) but for the activism of the judiciary and supervisory role of the military that provided 380,000 personnel for security duty.
There is little doubt that the vast majority of people in Pakistan are greatly pleased—and relieved—with the July 25 election results.
Perhaps nothing has pleased them more than the fact that maulana Fazlur Rahman, the most venal character in Pakistani politics, lost both seats he was contesting for the National Assembly.
Many other party ‘leaders’ also lost, much to their chagrin but to the huge satisfaction of the people. How could they lose, they demanded to know.
Their knee-jerk reaction was that there must have been massive rigging. And they announced rejection of the results vowing to launch agitation rallies. Let them try; they will find that few people would join them.
One of the most ludicrous rules in Pakistan is that a candidate can stand for election in five different constituencies at once. He/she can also run simultaneously for the National as well as Provincial assemblies.
Clearly this is meant to enable ‘leaders’ of political parties or people that think they are ‘important’ to be in parliament to get into one or the other assembly. This needs to change.
Imran Khan’s challenges, however, are much more serious. It is easy to make promises, a lot more difficult to deliver with so many opponents both internal and external.
He has aroused great expectations among the people with the promise of change. People will be anxious for instant results and can quickly turn sour if their expectations are not met.
Economy would be his biggest challenge. Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves have been badly depleted with the former rulers stealing billions and stashing them in Western banks or buying luxury properties abroad.
The former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz are currently in jail over corruption charges. A great many more need to be there including Asif Ali Zardari and his equally thieving sister Faryal Talpur.
Will the stolen loot that amounts to some $135 billion, be returned to Pakistan?
Imran Khan has promised transparency and accountability across the board starting with himself and his ministers. He also announced the day after the election (July 26) that he will not move into the prime minister’s residence in Islamabad that resembles a palace and fortress rolled into one.
He said the prime minister’s residence and the huge governors’ mansions would be turned to better use such as educational institutions or rented out.
These are good gestures but still symbolic. It would set an even better example if Imran Khan and his ministers were to use more modest vehicles for travel rather than Mercedes or Pajeros. Other perks also need to be curtailed.
In the immediate aftermath of the elections, Imran Khan has to curtail the oversized ambitions of the independents that have joined his party both at the centre as well as in the crucial Punjab province to give him the majorities that he needs to rule.
These people will demand their pound of flesh seeing that they are in a position to blackmail, especially in Punjab where the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) is a very close second. There is much more room for mischief there.
Decades of misrule have distorted life in Pakistan a great deal. While Imran Khan focuses on the economy that must be his priority, urgent reforms of the judiciary as well as the police forces across the country are also needed.
Similarly, land reforms must be tackled on a priority basis as well as attention paid to getting clean drinking water to people. Millions of children die each year due to contaminated water in Pakistan.
One measure of confidence in PTI’s victory can be discerned from the fact that the dollar to rupee rate dropped from 129 to 126 rupees to the dollar.
In order to attract foreign direct investment, especially from overseas Pakistanis, the PTI government has to address the issue of land and property mafias.
Many overseas Pakistanis are hugely frustrated by the fact that their hard earned income that they invest in Pakistan, is usurped by people, often close relatives.
They have no recourse to law since the court system is riddled with corruption and often takes decades to deal with such matters. In Pakistan, these are referred to as ‘Diwani cases’.
A complainant may die long before the court deals with the matter and then too, it often advises both parties to resolve their differences through negotiations.
If Imran Khan is serious about attracting foreign investment, especially from overseas Pakistanis that have hitherto been remitting some $20 billion each year (more than Pakistan’s export earnings), he must address their legitimate concerns.
China’s economic miracle was partly financed by expatriate Chinese investing in their country’s development.
In his address on July 26, Imran Khan said he would send teams to China to learn from their method of alleviating poverty (China took 70 million people out of poverty in 30 years) and fighting corruption.
He should add to this list China’s policy of assuring its expatriates to invest in the country.
Environmental pollution is another major concern, as in several regional countries. This also needs to be addressed.
Imran Khan and is party face a tall order of challenges. There is, however, no reason why they cannot succeed if there is a will and the determination to tackle them in earnest.
It is our prayer that the hopes he has aroused, especially among the youth, are not dashed again as happened following the assumption of power by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1972.
Tomorrow, Pakistan has a tryst with history. Despite heavy odds and pejorative conspiracy theories, the people of Pakistan will exercise their right of franchise to elect a new government.
Tight security arrangements have been made for the election, with the deployment of nearly 7.5 million security personnel and 1.6 million electoral officials. There is an electrifying buzz on the streets, as people animatedly discuss which party will have the last laugh and who will be the deposed former premier Nawaz Sharif’s successor to the throne of thorns.
Known for their exemplary courage and resilience, Pakistanis are eager to defeat bullets with ballots and replace despair and darkness of yesterday with hope and light of tomorrow. However, not everything is hunky-dory. There are many hurdles and stumbling stocks. The volatile political environment of Pakistan means the election will be bitterly contested and there would be overt and covert attempts to manipulate the result.
Some serious doubts have been expressed by top political parties – including Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) led by Bilawal Bhutto – about the fairness of the election process and the ability of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the caretaker government in Islamabad to provide a level playing field to all the parties. They have alleged that the cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek Insaaf (PTI) was being favored by the powerful military establishment. Interestingly, many senior leaders of PML-N and PPP have defected to PTI lately.
The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), in a statement last week said, there were “ample grounds to doubt” the legitimacy of the elections and criticized “blatant, aggressive and unabashed attempts to manipulate the outcome of the upcoming elections.”
PML-N, which ruled the country until recently, has been hit badly after the three-time prime minister and the party’s lynchpin was sentenced to 10-year jail term in an anti-graft case, along with his daughter and heir apparent Maryam Nawaz. The verdict, which came less than a month before the election, is being seen as a smart ploy by the military establishment, which has great influence in judiciary, to prevent the party from retaining power.
However, the move might just prove a blessing in disguise for the beleaguered former premier and his party, considering the sympathy factor. Also, the party has strong hold on its traditional support base. Even if the party loses to PTI, it is most likely to win the Punjab province, which is extremely significant.
The intense political rivalry between PML-N and PTI is believed to be one of the reasons the military establishment in Pakistan decided to nail Sharif and leave his camp dispirited just before the election, which gives automatic advantage to PTI. Sharif, before going to Adiala jail in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, asserted that the elections did not remain credible and the results would not be acceptable.
So, unlike in the previous elections, when accusations of fraud, rigging and manipulation would be made after the exit poll, this time the judicial-military establishment has been accused of supporting Khan’s PTI even before the voting. In all likelihood, the post-election scenario doesn’t look too attractive. If there is a hung parliament, all parties would cry foul. If PTI wins the majority, other parties would claim manipulation. If PML-N races ahead, PTI would protest. The fault lines are deep.
Pakistan’s powerful military, which controls the country’s foreign policy, especially relations with neighboring countries, is believed to have been miffed with Sharif’s peace overtures to New Delhi and his endeavors to broker peace between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
In Pakistan, the democratically elected leaders cannot overstep the red line drawn by the military. Sharif did and he paid the heavy price. He was disqualified from elections and sent to jail, even when some candidates affiliated with outlawed organisations like ASWJ, who have blood of Shias on their hand, have been given tickets to contest the election. Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi, the ASWJ leader, was taken off Pakistan government’s own black list last month as he prepared his candidature. Khan, who is seen as the military’s blue-eyed boy, single-handedly led the crusade against Nawaz Sharif government, calling it corrupt and incompetent. When the verdict against Sharif was announced, Khan was addressing one of his election rallies. He broke the news and his supporters broke into celebration.
In his massive election rallies, he vowed to transform Pakistan in line with the vision of country’s founding fathers and root out corruption by strengthening institutions of governance. While his cozy relationship with the military and Taliban has raised a few eyebrows, he has great following among country’s burgeoning young population.
Even celebrities and former cricketers like Wasim Akram and Waqar Younus have backed their ‘skipper’ with one of the top trending hashtags #BehindYouSkipper. But, what must have given Khan a reason to cheer is a public opinion survey done by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) and Herald magazine that shows PTI in lead, followed by PML-N and PPP.
While according to most pundits, it will be a close fight between PTI and PML-N, the other party in the fray PPP is now a shadow of its past, with support base limited to southern Sindh province. The young party chief Bilawal Bhutto has been campaigning hard across the country but undeniably he lacks the charisma and mass appeal of his late mother Benazir Bhutto.
Meanwhile, the election is being held amidst a series of terror attacks across the country, which has created panic among the voters. Security has been beefed up to protect electoral booths and neutral observers have been appointed to ensure free and fair voting. But, as they say, the last word in Pakistan belongs to the military.
