Former Cricketer’s Dream of New Pakistan and Hard Realities.

By N. GUNASEKARAN

The former cricketer turned politician, Imran Khan, the 1992 World Cup-winning cricket captain, officially took the oath as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan. His political party, the Pakistan Movement for Justice (Tehreek-e-Insaaf-PTI) emerged as the single-largest party in the parliament for the first time. The PTI bagged 115 out of the 272 directly contested seats in Pakistan’s Parliament.

He was able to gain massive support from the voters by exploiting popular anger and dissatisfaction over the past governments’ imposition of brutal austerity measures under the dictates of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the rampant corruption persisting in the state establishment.

Last year, then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, when the Panama Papers provided evidence of corrupt practice, was excluded from Pakistani political life by the Supreme Court. He was removed from the prime ministership and stripped of his National Assembly seat. Subsequently, Sharif, barred from public office for life, was jailed. These developments also helped Imran to gain victory.

The two main contenders in the general elections, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which led the outgoing government, and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), claimed serious irregularities in the vote. During the elections, there were serious accusations that the military, which has directly ruled Pakistan for much of its history and still holds control over the country’s foreign and security policies, was intervening in the election process, to secure PTI’s victory. The English-language daily Dawn from Pakistan commented, “Rigging has been alleged in many elections but, this time, the sheer scale of it is what casts a shadow on these elections.” However, Khan, rejecting the accusations, termed the general elections as “the fairest” in Pakistan’s history.

He has delivered a series of wide-ranging promises of more jobs and relief for the poor. He also pledged to create as many as 10 million jobs. Currently, Pakistan has an unemployment rate of 4%. Khan’s party manifesto gave a promise of building five million low-cost housing units over the next five years. His promises on corruption and jobs resonated with the millions of young, literate, poverty-stricken and unemployed Pakistanis.

Khan also promised to create an “Islamic welfare state,” while vowing to “decrease all of our expenses” and to “safeguard” taxpayers’ money. But he was confronted with a major economic crisis. The currency has lost some 20% of its value, in US dollar terms, since the beginning of the year, with the central bank’s reserves shrinking seriously as imports continue to increase and exports fail to catch up.

Currently, Pakistan is facing a balance-of-payments crisis, with a nearly $18 billion deficit. The burgeoning foreign and fiscal debt crisis, rising unemployment, climate change, and the threat of extremism are still plaguing the country.

Khan has realized the precarious situation and said Pakistan’s “economy has never been so abysmal.” But if he goes for the old path of clinching another agreement with the IMF with draconian austerity measures, the country would be continuing in economic peril.

Khan also promised “peace” and stressed the need for a solution to the Afghan war and “mutually beneficial” relations with the US. Islamabad had long been acting as the Washington’s principal ally in South Asia. But over the past two decades the US has shifted its strategic gestures towards India, to achieve its long-term goal of countering Chinese advance, militarily and strategically.

Last year, US President Donald Trump threatened Pakistan with punishment if it does not suppress Afghan insurgents operating from its border region. In economic terms, this punishment would include cuts to aid and payments for services rendered in fighting the Afghan war and in the external front Pakistan would be isolated in the sub-continent. And the US plans for a massive escalation of the Afghan war would also endanger not only the security of the region and also the democratic stability of Pakistan internally.

The dream of “New Pakistan” as pronounced by new Prime Minister Imran khan could not be realized if Pakistan’s long-standing support for the undemocratic regime-change operations of the US in the Asian region and its dependence on the US for financial aid and military assistance was continued.

Pakistan’s ruling elites had been a staunch ally of the US and its NATO allies and rendered support for the brutal neo-colonial war of occupation, under a puppet government in Kabul with night raids, drone strikes and other acts of terror. Internally Pakistan was also subjected to attacks through the US’s drone strikes that have killed thousands of Pakistani civilians and terrorized the impoverished population of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Both internal and external policies of the Pakistan elites resulted in the curtailment of democratic rights and the democratic aspirations of the toiling people of Pakistan. The mute question is how Imran could lead the country on the independent, democratic path, pursue the people-oriented economic policies domestically and maintain good relationships with neighbors, including India.

N. Gunasekaran is a political activist and writer based in Chennai, India.

From The Progressive Populist, September 15, 2018

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