How can Imran Khan bring a change to Pakistan?
ECONOMIC REFORMS: The new government will be inheriting an economic position that has been mismanaged for decades. One look at the Balance of Payments for 2017/8 shows the kind of disaster the country is facing. Economic reforms are not only about issuing directives or changing policies, but about changing how people behave. Gathering taxes and affirmative actions towards huge loss-making state owned entities (Airlines, Railway, Steel and more) are all important issues. Building an economic stabilisation program, implementing hard economic reforms while still retaining foreign investor confidence are not easy tasks. The new government also needs to quickly resolve the confusion over CPEC, particularly in context of the IMF. Country needs the IMF & CPEC – how to balance these interests will need a lot more than just sincere/honest leadership.
FIGHTING/ERADICATING CORRUPTION: PTI based its election campaign on this. If IKs seeks to prosecute corruption at any level it must have the conviction to see it through. People are angry and fed-up for years of continued corruption. The economic rationale for eradicating corruption is clear, it is the political dimension that will determine whether the new government can end pervasive corruption.
Truly wish IK and PTI the very best – But its going to be a long hard road. Can IK do it? Even if the chance of success being low – It should be supported because IK has something the last governments did not have.
I think any Pakistani PM who wants to make Pakistan great must shed off all bravado about bringing India to its (India’s) knees. India is simply too powerful for that. Today even a superpower like China can’t achieve this, so how can Pakistan dream to achieve it?
If Imran learns to make true friendship with India, Pakistan has a chance to become great. In the process, India also can scale new heights thanks to peace on its borders. But it is more important for Pakistan to establish friendship with India than it is for India to establish friendship with Pakistan.
Imran should understand that getting J&K parted from India is a pipe dream. He should not be foolish on this issue. He should accept what ZAB had orally accepted during his 1972 talks with Indira Gandhi in Shimla viz. to make today’s LOC as the international border & never interfere with Kashmir issue. Unfortunately he went back on his words.
If Pakistan thinks that they can threaten India with her nuclear bombs, Pakistan should remember that Pakistan can create a small wound by nuking Delhi or Mumbai, but India can nuke Pakistan into oblivion!
Imran, by his own admission, had cheated India on cricket field by tampering the ball just after the drinks breaks by (mis)using the bottle caps to do tampering. But India today is no more bholaa-bhaalaa nation as it was during Nehru- & the Nehru-progeny eras that followed. Today India will watch closely every step Imran would take & never blindly trust him.
Imran should also remember that the senior Pakistani Army officers do not wish that India & Pakistan become friends for a totally selfish reason. If such a friendship gets established, their pomp, their special privileges, their retirement kitties etc would get unfavorably affected. They wouldn’t be able to pose (wrongly) as the sole saviors of Pakistan. They would never like it. So they will keep poking their noses in every affair to make sure that we don’t become friends. Imran will have to order these fat cats to barracks. Will he have the guts to do so & if he does, would the Pakistani people stand behind him? God (probably) knows!
So, this is my advice to him for whatever it is worth.
Nawaz Sharif tried to be friends with India and did reap advantages. But still he was not able to be free of continuous meddling by Pakistani Army. If he can’t kick the Army Generals on their ample behinds, he has no hopes.
I wish Imran a successful stint as Pakistan’s PM with close friendship with India! Amen!!
The one who is taller and smart is the Defense Minister of Pakistan. And the one who is standing behind him humbly with beard and fat body structure is the Speaker of National Assembly.
Both are moving in a queue with good patience and humility to board in a routine passenger aircraft. Ordinary citizens are moving along with them without any kind of submissiveness or fear. In fact, other citizens seem stern than these ministers.
Above picture may not seem strange to the people of Europe or America but for people in Pakistan this is something really different.
During the previous governments, ministers of such important position had huge protocols and they used to avoid any such kind of queue. They used to travel in special flights and through VVIP entrances and exits.
Anyone might say that this is a public stunt.
Or this is no way different from the previous culture.
But in fact this is different.
Pervaiz Khattak, the current Defense Minister, was previously Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa- a province of Pakistan. He and his team usually had very small number of protocol officers with him.
Once, when he was travelling to Lahore he was stopped at a security check post. He was sitting with his other ministers without any protocol vehicles escorting him. Police constables at security check post didn’t recognize them and asked to allow to search the vehicle. CM obeyed all the rules and procedures as he should.
So this is the way Imran Khan would bring a change in Pakistan.