Naya Pakistan May Have a Long Teething Period
By Karamatullah K. Ghori
Toronto, Canada

Imran Khan will have been sworn in as the 21st PM of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan by the time you get to read these lines.
However, Imran and his booming legions of Pakistanis at home and abroad, mostly young and vociferous, may claim that he’s the 1st PM of a Naya (new) Pakistan. That may well be so. But hammering out that much-touted Naya Pakistan on the anvil he has will take a lot of sweat, toil and tears. Any friend of his and that of Pakistan should wish him well and full speed ahead.
More than anything else, it will take an unflinching resolve, grit and determination on part of the architects of this new Pakistan to tide over umpteen number of challenges and imponderables—some foreseen and visible but others still shrouded in the fog of uncertainty—ahead.
Those who claim to know Imran—this scribe included—would reassure anyone entertaining doubts on his ability that he’s a man of steel when it comes to pursuing a dream. His commitment to his cherished goal has been amply tested over the past 22 years of him as a politician.
The same, however, can’t be said, at this threshold, about the team he has assembled to assist him in his mission. They are, on the face of it, mostly good people, educated, world-conscious and well-traveled. But governing a country, especially a country as complex and convoluted as Pakistan will be an entirely different ball-game, despite all their expertise and experience. One ought to wish them well, too.
One may be tempted to call it a handicap—a big handicap, at that—but it’s almost given that Imran can’t look forward to a smooth passage through the Legislature, or Legislatures, he will need to co-opt to his programs of Tabdeeli,or meaningful change in the core values and political spectrum of Pakistan.
Imran’s clarion call for a radical, massive and across-the-board change in the culture, philosophy and style of governance in Pakistan was the mantra he propagated all these two-decades-plus of an untiring struggle to gain the confidence of the Pakistanis. They took their time in positively responding to his call and say yes without obfuscation.
But now that they have said a loud yes, it’s Imran’s call, from here on, to translate his vision into reality. That would be taxing and demanding a lot of him. The mandate he has received last July 25 isn’t universal. There are, as yet, pockets of resistance to his mantra. Those elected in opposition to him may be run-of-the-mill, tested and found-wanting breed of politicians who have brought the country to its current precipice. But they still have their nuisance value, if you could dignify it by calling it a ‘value,’
What may be said with certitude is that Imran’s political opponents will not feel shy, at all, of giving him a tough time. Their current claim of being ‘united’ in opposition to him may not hold water much longer. It will, for sure, fizzle out and unravel like a house of cards. But they are a mean-spirited and cussed bunch of losers who could be expected to stoop down to any level to throw hurdles in his way.
Imran will need to keep his eyes wide open and watch like a hawk on the shenanigans of these self-serving demagogues. They will not be averse to deliberately derail and sabotage his initiatives.
But he will also have to develop and hone the art of deal-making, an essential attribute of politics and politicians. To the dismay of all his well-wishers, Imran doesn’t have much of a reputation for deal-making. He’s obstinate as all men of principle are. Some of his detractors would gleefully stick the label of being an extremist on him.
Extremist or not, his capacity to compromise will be tested in the course of time. That undesirable tryst with reality may face him sooner than later; maybe as early as in the tedious task of allocating cabinet portfolios to his ‘allies,’ with whose help he has surmounted the challenge of numbers needed for him to become PM.
Saying that the economy is in a mess would be an understatement. The two previous regimes, both civilian, have looted the treasury and done everything conceivable to shove the economy into the hole where it’s at this juncture. Some would be tempted to say that Imran has been presented with a poisoned chalice. To which his defenders would retort that he’s the best man to step into the mess. It’s a tough job ahead of him. But the tough get going when things are dire and daunting.
The hemorrhaging economy urgently needs a quick dose of life-saver to wrest it from the clutches of sudden death. A bailout is an incontinent need. But where will this bailout package come from—for a moribund economy downed by a monthly deficit of $ 2 billion—is a question on everyone’s lips. Will it be friendly countries—such as China, Saudi Arabia,et al.—or the dreaded IMF, whose supposedly life-saving doses for many a struggling economy have proven to be the kiss of death.
Asad Omar, Imran’s economy czar and Minister of Finance-in-waiting hasn’t ruled out going to IMF for a bailout package but says this would be a matter of last resort.
But even with the injection of a quick bailout, the economy will not be revved up enough to deliver according to the people’s expectations, and up to the minimum level of progress promised by PTI. Asad Omar has ruled out quick fixes or lollipops to deliver to people’s early expectations.
The question is, will the people have patience enough to give the Imran team adequate time to deliver? The people of Pakistan aren’t famous for their patience. On the contrary, they are known to have short fuses. It will be easy for Imran’s enemies—whose ranks are burgeoning—to poison the people’s minds against him with cheap, but effective, slogans and rhetoric. That’s something that must agitate Imran’s mind and cause serious concern. It will take astute leadership on his part, as well as on part of his team, to not let their popular mandate sag under adverse and hostile winds.
Foreign policy is not a forte of Imran. He hasn’t, to-date, operated in the realm of foreign relations. But being a stranger or a novice to it will not shield him against the delicate task of balancing his feet between rival contenders to Pakistan’s attention and priorities.
CPEC, for example, is the only redeemable legacy of an otherwise thieving Nawaz cabal. This model of China-Pakistan economic and strategic cooperation may be unique to all those who can figure out its potential on the scale of socio-economic benefits to a country like Pakistan. The plan should come in handy to Imran in his avowed mission to share economic benefits with those hitherto kept outside the loop.
But CPEC is under attack from the Americans. The revanchist Trump administration, in particular, has been targeting CPEC from its narrow perspective of potential rivalry with China. To Washington CPEC is the Chinese gambit to acquire strategic foothold in an area of great sensitivity; Gwadar, the focal point of CPEC is within hailing distance of the Gulf and Straits of Hormuz through which the bulk of oil destined for the West passes.
Pakistan is becoming an unwitting target for US ire in its ratcheting rattling of sabers with China. That may pose a huge challenge to Imran in the critical realm of already strained relations between Pakistan and US.
In his maiden speech to the nation since winning its trust at the polls Imran spoke of his desire to have cordial relations with Washington on a basis of equality. But therein lies the catch for him and Pakistan, because Washington has hardly ever treated Pakistan as an equal.
One can imagine the enormity of Imran’s task to convince the Trump administration to treat Pakistan with the respect it deserves. Secretary of State Pompeo didn’t exude any regard for Pakistani sensitivities when—as soon as he sniffed a possible Pakistani move to seek a bailout package from IMF to tide over the current balance of payment hardship—he warned IMF to entertain no such request, because he thought Pakistan would use the IMF funds to settle its debt with China.
One may hope Imran fares better vis-à-vis India. He was magnanimous on letting the Indians, and the world, know that his government would take two steps forward to each one step taken by the Modi Sarkar to bridge the yawning gap of trust between the two estranged neighbors. But a breakthrough is likely to remain a distant hope, given the present intoxication of Modi with the narrow and jingoistic philosophy of Hindutva.
But Imran’s gesture of inviting some of his contemporary Indian cricket legends—Gavaskar, Siddhu and Kapil Dev—to his inauguration as PM is still commendable. One shouldn’t be shy of deploying all those tools one may be comfortable with in pursuance of a mission. Imran is best known in India for his prowess on the cricket field. So, no harm if he uses cricket as his initial gambit in chasing the chimera of normal, good neighborly, relations with India. It’s all in fitness of things.
However, Imran should remember that Ziaul Haq, too, tried cricket as a means of breaking the logjam with India but couldn’t make much headway with it. If Zia couldn’t dent the Indian armor when a soft leader like Rajiv Gandhi was at its helm one shouldn’t expect Imran to succeed against a populist demagogue like Modi, whose rabble-rousing is detested even by Indian moderates. But a miracle may still happen.
To sum up, Imran has a formidable task ahead of him, both at home and abroad, as he takes up the reins of power in a deeply polarized Pakistan. Worse, it’s a Pakistan mercilessly denuded of its precious resources by two thieving ‘leaders’ over the last decade.
But Imran is a man relishing challenges. He’s an epitome of the proverbial ‘tough guy’ who gets going when things are ugly and tough. He’s blessed not only with an unflinching determination but also with a popular following that has a blind faith in his abilities to turn things around. He shouldn’t squander or abuse that trust. His mantra of a Naya Pakistan has traction with the people. All that he has to do is deliver, and deliver before hope turns stale. - K_K_ghori@hotmail.com
(The author is a former ambassador and career diplomat)