Daily Times

After almost two years of the PTI in the government one thing is getting very clear that the narrative of ‘change’ (tabdeeli) which drove PTI’s manifesto and the election campaign of 2018 ‘THE ROAD TO NAYA PAKISTAN’ is going to remain only a ‘narrative’ at this point and is not going to see the light of the day at least not in the near future.

On a macro level a governance breakdown is in the offing and we are not even close to see the fulfilment of the promises made by the PTI to achieve success, like ‘transform government’ ‘strengthen the federation’ ‘inclusive economic growth and uplift of agricultural sector’ besides other promises made.

Imran Khan, no doubt has been facing an uphill task to work on his pre-elections pledges as well as save his government, which is largely fragile given the number of seats his party secured and has to rely on his allies for almost everything he wants to carry out or accomplish.

There is no doubt you need electable politicians and political allies to win elections and they are necessary to form government especially in a Pakistani democratic setup. The promises made with the political allies were also not fulfilled despite numerous guarantees given to them time and again. As a result the allies are running out of patience BNP has already parted ways and the fragile setup PTI government was standing on is weakened.

Even with a delicate balancing act his party has been involved in since taking office, his overall position will remain weak at least for this term and perhaps in the future as well

Mr Khan became so preoccupied with ‘electable’ candidates that after winning the elections and forming his government he completely ignored his own party workers and candidates some of whom came from independent bases. He does not even know their faces and talked to them in the past as some complain now when he is paying more attention to them.

The support of an independent candidate or an ally party is like a ‘swing vote’ in elections, which remains a surprise until the last moment; it can go into any direction at any time on any issue, unfortunately this government will have to keep relying on that uncertain support while keeping its allies happy. On the public front of the things, the popular slogan of Imran khan was ‘change is not coming, change is here!’ which enticed millions of not only Pakistanis living in the country but a large majority of overseas Pakistanis to put their trust in their own country and once again inoculated confidence in the politicians which was wobbly if not completely lost after the two consecutive tenures of inept governance by PPP and PML (N).

The hostile opposition will never let Mr. Khan settle down easily for two very apparent reasons – one, they do not want him to succeed with his election promises and pledges so as to gain reputation of good governance amongst masses and two, they would want power back which they have lost due to many factors including their own mistakes and practices.

For these two objectives, the opposition will go to any extent to dislodge Mr. Khan’s government. It looks apparent that the joyride is over for Mr. Khan and it is time the real hard work begins in the antagonistic environment with many roadblocks to overcome and prove his mantle as a voice for change simultaneously giving common man some relief if not complete. That has not been seen so far.

Even with a delicate balancing act his party has been involved in since taking office, his overall position will remain weak at least for this term and perhaps in the future as well.

On the Karachi scene, the MQM and the PTI were supposed to be the partners, particularly, in the urban Sindh to cure the ills and start anew. Urban Sindh needed sincerity from its rulers and that has been in dearth lately and still is, Karachi is completely left out of the federal equation from Mr. Khan’s perspective.

In rural Sindh it is the PPP which itself is in a sort of ‘disarray’ and the PTI certainly has not been able to capitalize on that weakness even with the help of Grand Alliance as of yet. They still have time though. A rigorous approach to tackle Sindh’s problems and make inroads into hearts and minds of die-hard PPP voters should be the name of the game but it is easier said than done.

What still remains to be seen is how Mr Khan will deal with fragility and take some initiative back to remain in power which he has lost drastically in the last two years or so, he has to deal with his own party members fairly as well as keep outsiders happy.

On a much bigger scale, It is time that the political landscape of Pakistan is transformed into a more visionary manifestation starting from foundational and structural changes in how political parties conduct their affairs, and expand their fold to the masses rather than narrow it down to become a personality cult.

Making medicine, wheat, sugar and other crisis reports public was one good step in a positive direction, however ensuring logical conclusions of curbing the corrupt practices is still a long ways away as people easily get away from being held accountable and answerable for their actions and do not face the consequences.

It is to be ensured the responsible elements should be brought to task to bear any fruit of the efforts made to cleanse the system of corruption by making massive and drastic changes in his style of governance and that can start by changing the cabinet ministers based on their capacity and conflict of interest roles of some of the technocrats he has appointed close to him.

A pragmatic approach is needed and not a tenacious and intemperate approach which is not based on the results as one can see in the unremitting case of chief minister-ship of Mr Buzdar.

The writer is an occasional freelance contributor/ commentator