Daily Times

Imran Khan is the new face of Pakistan’s political screen. Cricket hero turned politician was sworn-in as the 22nd prime minister of the country. Reminiscing the past five years, Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) has been the opposing party that has given Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) a tough battle. PML-N’s former premier Nawaz Sharif landed himself in jail due to the apex court’s alleged ruling against him not on corruption but rather on dishonesty. However, due to the orders by the Islamabad High Court, keeping in mind the condition that Sharif and his daughter will not be able to take part in the political system of Pakistan for the minimum of 10 years, and due to their sentence being suspended, now their entrance into politics will be based on the final outcome. Coming back to the PM, Khan, during his first address to the nation, stated that he will make efforts to reinstate the institutions; reiterated his agenda to eradicate corruption and ensure social justice, education, and development for all. It’s time for Khan and his political party, PTI, to play for next five years to transform the status Quo to a “new Pakistan“, as promised throughout his 22 years in politics.

Despite heavy claims by PTI’s top-notch leadership, the journey to rein the handicapped country may be tumultuous and challenging. With economic crises surging up and trade deficit running into tens of billions of rupees, the hefty debts and large-scale imports under the One belt road initiative have caused the central bank to devalue the currency four times since last December. To escape the imminent financial crises, the country is in dire need of a bailout package from the Washington lender – International Monetary Fund, which has got the largest share of 16 percent of the United States in it. Maybe an inevitable option for Asad Umer – the incumbent finance minister, is that he is yet to decide the smartest possibility to sneak out without opting for a bailout package which is coupled with conditions of tighter monetary policies. Keeping in mind that the US secretary of state Mike Pompeo had refuted any possibility of an IMF bailout package to pay off the Chinese loan.

With threatening tweets of halting the military assistance and training programmes, Khan should not underestimate, rather he should search for new avenues. The extremist school found within the country has earned us none other than wrath and isolation among the nations

At present, Pakistan reserves have dropped to an alarming level in Asia of about $9.1 billion, until an extended help by China earlier last month had lend Pakistan $1billion out of  the $2billion in total, which slightly increased reserves to $10billion, as per agreement to ease the pressure on the foreign reserves and an effort to stabilize the rupee against the dollar.

Apart from the dooming economic crises, the low Tax issue is a major problem for the new government. This has to be addressed at earliest, since the last government has hiked its tax-GDP ratio to 12.5 percent in recent years, yet it still stands the lowest in Asia and across the globe. The government’s main reliance on tax generation is the indirect sources, in which there is a need to revamp the tax system to eliminate the loopholes, where the big corporation and estate tycoons are gulping down billions of tax money, thus causing a setback to country’s dwindling economy.

In the past, Khan was trolled by his critics on hitting the goal of planting a billion Tree Tsunami in the province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa KPK in August 2017, costing about $169million. His teams’ tireless efforts added 350,000 hectares of trees to restore the depleted forest reserves and help regulate the unfavorable climatic changes. But Pakistan kept the tradition alive and was yet again scaled as the lowest forest in the region because the country failed to meet the minimum recommendation of 12% by the UN. This initiative not only left a lasting opportunity to conserve the environment but additionally created nurseries under the project, which boost the green job opportunities for the unemployed youth. However, Khan promised during this election to create job opportunities for 10 million youth and building houses for five million poor. This is resonating across the country, which has attracted wide criticism and praise as well but is an unprecedented assignment ever taken by any political party. Though Pakistan has plunged into deep crises, the country might hinder Khan to fulfill his promise in his five years rein and may deceit the unemployed youth, which is the latest talk of the town amongst political scientists.

The economic setbacks striking the country have an intricate tie with the instability in the region. Pakistan has paid a huge human toll fighting against the militancy in war against the terrorism and roles in the proxy wars we continue to date, despite unacknowledged efforts by the United States. With threatening tweets of halting the military assistance and training programmes, Khan should not underestimate, rather he should search for new avenues. The extremist school found within the country has earned us none other than wrath and isolation among the nations. Despite being labelled as Taliban Khan internationally, Imran was the first to introduce the much Madrassah reforms back in 1990s, when he had stepped into politics. His recent address to the nation includes this agenda to deracialize the radicals and help them transform their lives by pushing them into mainstream schools for a formal education that will make a peaceful nation.

In addition, the foremost agenda of PTI’s government is to reinvigorate Pakistan’s ties with India and endorse the comprehensive dialogue sessions to resolve the long-awaited Kashmir issue through bilateral peace talks. However, the allegations of sheltering state-sponsored global terrorists, like Hafiz Saeed and camps to train the militants to create insurgency in Kashmir, have posted a new challenge for khan to portray a peace-loving country to the outside world. Since the last Pakistan had landed in the grey list of financial action task force, due to the issues pertaining to money laundering and alleged claims of harboring head chiefs of banned militant outfits had surfaced. India should come to a pact with Pakistan and avoid launching fire at the line of control because soon the peace talks will commence before a faction of the ruling BJP. This might take an advantage to flare up tensions with Pakistan, ahead of general elections in 2019.

At last, PTI should reframe its foreign policy towards its long-ago close ally US, which has fallen prey to distrust and has lost mutual respect. Reinvigorating the relations will help both the countries to continue to work for their mutual interests, as well as help Pakistan to equip ourselves with the latest technologies to strengthen our armed forces. With recent tweets and announcements of halting billions of military aid and suspending professional training exercises of high-rank Pakistan army officers, an immense loss to our military has been the result, which has sacrificed their tens of thousands of personnel in the war against terrorism. Despite all this, at present, Pakistan has a new strategic partner in the region – China with $60billion loan, brings investment under one-belt road initiative, which has been approached by Russia to be a part of this strategic plan and form a block to withstand against the growing influence of US in South Asia. But for Khan, now is a great opportunity to chalk out a new strategy to develop bilateral ties with all its allies.

The writer is a journalist at Fox News Digital

Published in Daily Times, October 13^th 2018.