Imran Khan & PTI: A need to reset the agenda.

Over twenty years back Imran Khan, two of his friends and myself were engrossed in a discussion on the future of Pakistan in my hotel room in Dubai. Imran was dropping hints that in a couple of days he would announce entering the political arena. I recall telling him then that would it not be better than become the 'Ralph Nader' of Pakistan, like a non political force bringing the government of the time to task of its performance or the lack of it. Late that night he took the flight to Pakistan and within days announced his entry into politics.

I have always said that if one attribute that stood out with Imran it has been his honesty, knowing full well that he accounted for every penny raised for his cancer hospital. I also felt that he was good at inspiring people in his team and yet the challenge would be running a country is radically different from running a country. The past two decades have evolved Imran Khan, from the start up political party to now a party in power in Pakistan. His policies and stance on some issues have warmed my heart, and on others I have had to stop and think about the sagacity of his words.

Today he is heading the government of a very difficult country, which does have enormous potential, and in my first blog after his election I imparted some advice to him (https://aqsher.blogspot.com/2018/07/letter-to-imran-khan.html) highlighting that tackling the economy and setting the foreign policy course are the two most important tasks before him. His successes so have on both fronts have been marginal. While his recent handling of the face off with India has been very good, his faux pas on Afghanistan, the recent press conference in Tehran, and his governments lack of economic direction are disturbing to say the least.

While one can go into specifics here, the fundamental problem lies in the way the PTI governance is being carried out. Though social media may well not be the only way to gauge the mind set of the governing party and its supporters, there is no doubt that Imran's cavalier style effects the proper framing of policy. On foreign policy alone you see the Foreign Office, the Prime Ministers office and the Prime Minister himself issuing statements that clearly indicate a lack of coordination and internal discussion between them.

A large part of me had hoped that Imran Khan would be a cohesive force after becoming Prime Minister. In this sense he has failed as the narrative from the PTI camp seems to suggest an intolerance to criticism. I, even though a well wisher of Imran, run the risk of being attacked on social media for criticizing him here. Imran and the PTI would argue that being inclusive towards political figures of the past who, in their eyes, robbed the nation of its wealth is next to impossible. My simple retort would be by all means accountability should be there and any one who has stolen money or misused public office should be brought to justice. However, this should be through the due process of the law. The national accountability machinery should be used to investigate and then the courts of law should be the ones to determine the fate of such people. Much like predecessor governments NAB seems to be a weapon against those who happen to be opponents and may well have ill gotten wealth.

The atmosphere is becoming toxic in a sense. Exit control lists, assuming all investments are from ill gotten wealth and in a sense short circuiting the due process of law in the aim to bring people to justice who allegedly stole money does have its ramifications on the business environment. Yes Imran Khan wants to clean up things, and that is a laudable task, but there are courts to do that and the effort should not look like its just a witch hunt for certain people. Legitimate investors will obviously be worried if arbitrary actions will come to haunt them for making investments into the country.

Indeed with an external debt of $99 billion and economic numbers across the board looking dismal, there will be a tendency to lean towards the blame game. Economic management in Pakistan has over decades been unhinged. While even the current debt level is around the same level as a percentage of GDP over the past two decades (ranges from 24% to 31% debt to GDP) there is no doubt that there has been a propensity to borrow even when GDP growth has been good. Part of the reason is the tax revenue has been abysmally low. In a country with a workforce of 58 million people the official tax payers who filed returns in 2018 was only 1.4 million!

Clearly what I would have expected Imran Khan to do is to work with the two other major parties on forming a consensus on economic policy and to legislatively overhaul the economic structure. In an environment where PTI feels anyone who is not supporting them is a traitor to the country there will not be any hope of a unified approach to economic reforms. It is time for the rhetorical slandering to be scaled down and for the PTI and its leadership to understand that just as the country united to face the recent threat from India, the same cooperation and mentality is needed to deal with the economic crisis the country faces.

Yes there are differences between the main leadership of the PMLN and PPP with PTI but there is still a possibility for a broad consensus with the rank and file members of both parties to consider a multi-partisan approach to handling issues of national importance. To me resetting the economic agenda is a priority and its great that Imran sees what is good about other countries and wants to learn from China and Iran and others, he must also realize the solutions are well within the intellectual capital available within the country.