Is Imran victim of his own narrative?

Non-interference in police and civil service has been one of the basic principles laid down by Prime Minister Imran Khan before coming into power.

What happened in the last 70 days not only put him in an embarrassing position but faced Supreme Court ‘suo motu’ because of some unlawful action. Is he in the company of bad advisers or has become victim of his own narrative of de-politicisation. He has five years and it is time for him to revisit the mistake he and his government have committed before he announces his ‘reform agenda’ on completion of 100 days. He himself has set some high moral and political standard for himself, his government and his party. He has five years to prove it and enforce his party’s manifesto but who knows better than a former captain of Pakistan cricket team that you need a solid foundation to win a match.

His government has taken some good decisions and people have appreciated it like his austerity drive, measures to uplift economy, visit of Saudi Arabia, but the controversies revolving around some of his actions like interference in police did not go well with his image and his past stance on such matters.

One wonders whether he is under pressure not to ‘reform’ police and civil service from his own ministers, coalition partners as reflected from their statements that he has been dragged in matters, which could have been sorted out at the lower level. PM Imran is still a popular leader and people want to give him a chance. Even the opposition parties decided not to create hurdles and let him enforce his reforms or in their words ‘let him commit more mistakes’.

People have also accepted some of his unpopular moves like rise in electricity, gas and CNG prices but disappointed over his handling issues like Pakpattan or Azam Swati’s farmhouse, particularly the latter as both issues were taken up by the Supreme Court.

Had he taken action against Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar or Swati instead of backing moves like transfer of DPO, IGP Punjab and then issuing verbal order for transferring IG Islamabad, the PTI could have proudly claimed ‘Tabdeeli’. On the contrary, there seems to be serious contradiction in one of his strongest political stances at the time of elections ie ‘non-interference’ in police, which even became part of his political narrative.

He always quoted how he or his KP government set good examples of ‘non interference’ in police and always named one person in this respect, the then Khyber Pakhtunkhwa IGP Nasir Durrani.

So, what went wrong now and why the PM could not been able to keep himself away from these controversies and failed to take a strong stance on ‘non-interference’. Who is misguiding him to an extent that he could not even persuade Durrani to withdraw his resignation, which he had given in protest after IGP Punjab was removed.

Twice he faced embarrassment because of ‘interference’, one because of action taken by his nominated Punjab chief minister in the case of Pakpattan DPO and now due to his own ‘verbal order’ for transferring IG Islamabad. One was expecting something new and different in ‘Naya Pakistan’ but these actions reminded of the past practices.

These may not be big issues but it only reflects sign of direct interference in police and unlawful action in transfer and postings which allowed the Supreme Court to take suo motu on these matters. The worst came when the government and his ministers including the Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry defended these actions and also passed a warning to police and civil servants. Such stances further irked the Supreme Court as minister’s reaction came after apex court suspended premier’s order.

It appears as some of his ministers and advisers instead of giving sane advices were becoming ‘more loyal than the king’.

If what information minister is saying about civil service and police is true and part of government policy, I wonder what his most important ‘task force’ on civil service reforms headed by veteran Dr Ishrat Hussain would do now.

Basic principle of the civil service rules says, which even the Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar has repeatedly said, ‘just follow the law and not the unlawful orders’. Thus, if the PM or ministers orders are lawful, the police and bureaucrats must follow, if not, they could regret. One expects from PM Imran Khan to follow the same and also issue such directives to all. Former IGP Nasir Durrani was one of Imran’s strongest faces when it came to de-politicisation of police. The premier himself use to say that he never used his influence or interfered in KP police matters and always praised Durrani for his professionalism. It was for this very reason that he appointed him adviser in Punjab to ‘reform police’.

Another former IGP, who also enjoyed good reputation when it come to police reforms, Dr Shoaib Suddle was also approached but he regretted because of his international commitments. But he advised Durrani to enforce Punjab Police Order 2002, and constitute Public Safety Commission, which the previous PML-N government avoided.

Durrani accepted PM’s offer on the condition of complete non-interference from the executive and Imran had assured him of this, sources said. But what the PM and perhaps Durrani did not know much was the expected opposition which can come on making police completely depoliticised from some of his party leaders as well as from his strong coalition partner PML-Q or Chaudhrys.

Sources said former president Pervez Musharraf was unable to enforce Police Order 2002, which generally was accepted as the best for bringing police out of political interference because of his allies like the PML-Q in Punjab and the MQM in Sindh. Interestingly, both are part of the PTI coalition as well though the MQM is now MQM-P and not as strong as it was in 2002.

I don’t mind Imran Khan or anyone’s ‘U-turn’ provided it leads to right turn and in the right direction. He should revisit some of his actions and see for himself whether those were in the right direction or not before he announces his complete reform agenda on completion of 100 days.

Imran should not become the victim of his ‘strong narrative’. Instead it is time for him to correct himself and his government and go ahead with plan of non-interference and de-politicisation of police and civil service, bringing institutionalised reforms.

He has no immediate threat from the opposition and has strong government but his own people are causing problems for him and allowing him to take actions which were not only unlawful but also unpopular.

Imran’s initial steps like austerity drive was generally welcomed by the people but cross section of society now expect some institutional steps to promote the culture of austerity in the country. He had set three major goals for his government before elections ie depoliticisation of civil service and police, steps to eradicate corruption, punish the corrupt, bring back looted money and to make Pakistan economic power. He has time to implement his goals but needs to make a good start.

The writer is a senior columnist and analyst with Geo, The News and Jang

Twitter: @MazharAbbasGEO