A week ago the deputy speaker of the National Assembly disallowed the non confidence motion and a jubilant Imran asked for the assembly to be dissolved as it seemed he has side stepped the no confidence motion. The Supreme Court of Pakistan reversed the move and restored the assembly and today in a few hours the assembly is presumably going to vote on the future of Imran Khan. Jurists will argue whether the Supreme Court has violated the separation of powers and indeed the legal saga may well continue. Imran Khan while saying he accepts the decision of the Supreme Court has kept his cards close to his chest and whatever his next move he will no doubt rely on his supporters to continue 'the struggle' on the streets.
While I have always admired and believed in Imran's honesty and patriotism his political views have always come across as an over simplification. Prone to accept advice that suits his own view of the world creates a filter that breeds a cultish following that cannot be the recipe for good advice. The use of Article 5 as the basis for countering the no confidence motion was seriously faulted. Indeed the tone of the communication from the US diplomat was very harsh and undiplomatic, but it is not unusual for countries to express their displeasure to embassy officials. How such a communication proves that there was a conspiracy with members of the opposition in Pakistan needs substantially more evidence than what we have seen thus far.
The Supreme Court may well be the forum to decide whether the actions of the deputy speaker were procedurally correct. Where the judges have over stepped their mandate is in directing the time and date and agenda of the first session of the restored National Assembly. This may well be the point of order on which the judgement may be challenged. The fact remains that in a democracy a no confidence motion is commonly used and it is a fact that members from the Treasury benches can and do cross over to the opposition. In Pakistan it is also the norm that from the day a new government is formed the opposition starts to plan its downfall. This is a zero sum game and indeed with Imran Khan in the opposition we are likely to see him also make every effort to dislodge the government that takes control now.
While Imran Khan may well wield street power and will use it as best as he can, he needs to also reflect on the past few years and learn from the mistakes. As the noise for a non confidence motion was gaining momentum some three months back Imran Khan felt his hold on his own party and its allies was strong enough to thwart any attempt to remove him from office. Yes there was and is unprecedented price inflation and the economy has continued to under perform. A major impact of this is the global inflation and price instability but since the start of the PTI government they could not give any direction to the economy.
Imran's promises of forcing the corrupt politicians to return the 'billions' they stole within a year, and to change the course of Pakistan's economy within 90 days were also election rhetoric and while some administrative reforms were made, not enough was done to change the situation on the ground. Imran suffers from the same syndrome that plagued the likes of Zulfikar Bhutto, who came to power with a promise of change, but never could transform things with good advice or break the mould of personality cult. For long the party that Bhutto formed, the PPP, remained a Bhutto family cult, and that continues to this day. The same is true of the PMLN, which is the domain of the Sharif family. Imran slipped into the same mould of surrounding himself with 'yes' men and party machinery aims to further his cult.
In this sense PTI remains a movement and not a political party where a core of political figures have a say. This is true of the other political parties too, but over three decades the likes of Sharifs and Bhuttos have realised they have to carry some of their party members with them. Imran must also understand that his own clean image is not enough to carry a nation with him. He needs to build a first class team around him and to also carry the team with him by giving them credit and praise. A criticism of Imran remains that its all about him and no one else.
For Pakistan while some will hail these developments as a victory for the Constitution but it brings with it the very people who has heavily tainted with corruption back to power. While an election may well be on the one year horizon where the decision by Pakistanis will have to be made whether they prefer incompetence (Imran's PTI) over corruption (PPP and PMLN). Neutral Pakistanis will woe the fact that in Imran Khan's government there was a chance to turn the corner with better governance and economic performance.
The 220 million people of Pakistan can only hope that Imran Khan and his PTI will have learned an important and vital lesson and will earnestly begin to reform into a party of substance rather than resort to street power as the only option of change. The opposition government that may come to power now will at best be a patch work of different agendas and will struggle to make any difference. To capitalise on this Imran himself will have to do some soul searching and start with a change in his style of leadership. Pakistan politics needs to mature from rhetoric to substance and this implies changes in not only the style of leadership but also the faces that come forward.
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