Daily Times

The prime minister warned that he would be far more dangerous when out of power than he is in power. It’s an ominous warning at his level that everyone seems to interpret it in his way. Although uncertainty among the public about the future existed for a long time, the PM’s dire warning further strengthened their state of despondency.

During the question-answer session when the PM lambasted the opposition, as usual, his threatening remark of turning outright dangerous if power was wrested away from him was rather unrelated to the occasion. “I am sitting quietly in my office and watching the drama unfold. But if I take to the streets, you will have nowhere to hide,” he warned. And that he would be a different entity to reckon with. Who he aimed his angry outburst at is anybody’s guess.

But what impels the PM to imagine that he will be out of power thus forced to return to his fighting days? Does he think the currents that kept him afloat have changed their direction? The PM may think the way he likes but the ground reality is that his government failed to perform what it promised, especially on three counts.

First, the much-touted process of accountability and bringing thousands of plundered billions back home from abroad failed miserably. While even the mention of a ‘billion’ would raise the eyebrows of many westerners, in our dear land billions flew like kites during the Basant days. The PM didn’t hesitate to use all vernaculars in his repertoire against his political opponents – Sharifs in particular, for funnelling billions abroad. But nothing materialised out of what the people began to believe as selective accountability and a witch-hunt. Neither did the accountability watchdog pursue the corruption cases against the ruling party stalwarts.

And what a quaint coincidence that when the accountability linchpin Shehzad Akbar resigned or was shown the door, Pakistan slid to 140th position out of 180 countries in the corruption index reported by Transparency International. The downward slide had continued for the last three years during the PTI government. The party leadership vociferously claimed to end corruption; bringing the “looters and dacoits” to book and recover the looted billions from them, ended up escalating the corruption index during its tenure.

The PM may think whichever way he likes but the ground reality is that his government failed to perform what it promised.

Second, improving the economy thus generating employment and creating hundreds of thousands of jobs had been part of the PTI agenda. So much so, we were told that people from outside the country would throng the job market when the national economy boomed owing to government policies. Instead, many lost their jobs due to the sagging economy. The PTI spokespersons blame the Covid pandemic for it but that’s only partially correct. The economy on the whole has badly suffered mainly because of misgovernment if the Rupee-Dollar parity is any evidence. Mismanaged economy resulted in spiralling inflation pushing the poverty line much higher. The lower segment of the society cares little which party is in power as long as the most essential edible commodities remain within its affordable reach.

Third, the information minister attributed the deplorable slide reported by Transparency International more to the “rule of law” than financial corruption. Strange indeed! Maybe he chose to borrow from the prime minister’s statement, “Lack of rule of law the biggest problem” in the country. The PM had made this statement during his meeting with a foreign correspondent last November. But this statement has nothing to do with the plummeting scale of corruption in the TI report. It’s better to accept responsibility and remedy the situation than deflect the failure by illogical reasoning.

To top it all, there’s talk of a presidential form of government in the country. The proponents of the proposition see it as a ‘cure all’ solution for the country’s troubles. There’s nothing new about such a system; we have been there before not once but a few times. The results were devastating, to say the least. What must be kept in mind is that it’s not the system as much as the well-meaning and capable men behind it who turn it into a story of success or failure. Less said about the former presidents and their achievements, the better.

The writer is a Lahore-based columnist and can be reached at pinecity@gmail.com.