Daily Times

Open your eyes as wide as you can and take note of where you are, why you are, and who you are with? For too long, our politics has been alienated by those who believe that decency, compassion, and honesty are not important ingredients of a recipe. That is why our politics has remained polarised to rust the compass that activates magnets of wisdom and prosperity in a society.

Today, the gap between the status quo and real life has become treacherously visible, and ironically, the faith in politics as a hope for change and a force for good has doomed over the entire country. It is almost eight years since Imran Khan stood at D-Chowk to tell us that he had a “vigorous plan” to fix the loopholes of the economic and social care system and offered multiple reform schemes. And yet we are no closer to any semblance of one. Perhaps, he seems so desperate to steal himself a slice of ecstasy, whereas, the members of his squad are carrying a knife in their pockets, looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.

To the best of my knowledge, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership seems tired, exhausted, confused, aggravated and much more doubtful as to whether they have a strategy to deliver jobs, good health care, education, and basic utilities of life. Now in 2021, an entire generation of young people have almost no chance of getting jobs whilst gig economy workers are left to moan in grinding poverty. Instead of showing us the way forward, PTI’s inadequate domestic policies have rightly declared a war on overloaded healthcare and outdated education system which has bruised the dream of a welfare state. According to UNICEF, Pakistan has the world’s second-highest number of out-of-school children (OOSC) with an estimated 22.8 million children aged 5-16 not attending school. Over 17 million people still have no choice but to drink contaminated water, and more than two out of five people do not have an access to proper toilets.

Similarly, judicial independence, law and order, current account deficit, and energy crisis are the fundamental issues in which the PTI leadership has miserably failed to bring any considerable reform despite making tall claims

Similarly, judicial independence, law and order, current account deficit, and energy crisis are the fundamental issues in which the PTI leadership has miserably failed to bring any considerable reform despite making tall claims.

Over the past few years, I have been contacted by many families sharing heartbreaking stories of having their hands tied behind their backs because of cultural wars manufactured by the PTI.

Distressingly, Pakistan’s population as well as its government, whether we like it or not, have became intolerant and just imposing their beliefs on others. Today, Pakistan is amongst the worst countries in the world that is damaging the values of religious freedom, human respect, and media independence. Our ethos of religious freedom, human respect and media independence is chronically welded with the profound sense of insecurity and economic risks. Meanwhile, shifting the blame on previous regimes is typically the all-round card PTI and their trading partners use day and night. This creates an impression of escaping responsibility that has become the recurrent theme of the PTI government.

From the perspective of academic models, the PTI has cynically operated the wind turbines of accountability to put opposition heads under the water. Eventually, Imran Khan and his acolytes’ serial incompetence have failed to integrate the working class into Pakistan’s politics which has increased the disparities between poor and rich in terms of opportunities and status. The last time I checked the road to “Naya Pakistan”, it was not through the yard of injustice, inequality, and inhumanity.

What strikes about all this bedtime story is how swiftly many of us perceived the PTI success in the 2018 election as a victory for hope over hate, decency over division, truth over lies and compassion over hatred. Where is any of that in our politics, I wonder?

Perhaps, presently, the leadership of Pakistan seems digressional because below the par politics has discarded the foundations of national unity and integrity that is further plaguing the state organs. The current time needs the government to realign its thoughts and decide the right path for the nation.

The PTI’s delusion can convince Prime Minister Imran Khan’s blind voters that PTI has delivered, but this does not change the fact that his overconfidence has disfranchised poor voters, misdirected foreign policy, disrespected diplomatic norms, and fractured the economy. With all these mounting challenges, oppositional political parties have a duty to expose the neglect of those who lead us rather than cannibalise each other.

Although there have been a lot of doom predictions about the life expectancy of the PTI government, it won’t see power again until it recalls the promises at the time of their win. Nevertheless, PTI will be remembered as a comedy serial of magnificent lies for many years. I bet you the time will never heal some of our scars, even after the demagogic play of PTI to rebuild a bridge even where there is no river.

If we are lucky enough to emerge from the siesta of hobgoblins fantasy, there will be a great prospect to harness the solidarity and national spirit that we have not seen over the past years, to rebuild our economy and our public services, to bring our communities bond together, and to put honesty, compassion, and integrity back at the heart of our politics.

Certainly, these are the lessons you might want to teach your children that being brave is more important in the first place than having failed to understand politics has no relation to morals. Today, the crucial question with a collective sense of heartbreak remains unanswered that is why is the truth buried for so long? The answer to this million-dollar question can be traced without an algorithm or google search engine. In fact, PTI showed us a “Naya Pakistan” but the old one has not gone away.

The writer is based in the UK, has an MBA from Pakistan, studied leadership in 21st Century from Copenhagen Business School and has specialization in Health informatics from Johns Hopkins University