No salvation?

As Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government loses its grip on one issue after another, there is little visible hope of turning around what looks like an increasingly uncertain outlook for the ruling structure.

But beyond just an accumulation of failures by the ruling party, more pertinently there lies ahead an increasingly dangerous outlook for the future of Pakistan. In brief, there is no visible hope for salvation of a country where Khan was elected prime minister just over three years ago amid much fanfare, celebration and above all unrivalled optimism for the future.

But Khan’s promise of ‘tabdeeli’ or change yet again lay in tatters this week as thousands of ordinary travelers were caught in unprecedented agony up in Murree, facing the direct brunt of a ferocious snow storm. Evidence of a man-made failure that led to at least 22 casualties in that sorry episode exposed yet another area of disconnect between the Khan-led ruling structure and Pakistan’s grassroots realities.

And the icing on the proverbial cake in this episode must be none other than the callous remarks by Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, who had the gall just a day or two earlier to suggest that economic recovery had enabled more Pakistanis with enough money to afford holidays in the midst of a harsh winter.

Though the government has promised a ‘comprehensive investigation’ to probe the tragic events in Murree, such proclamations on other similar affairs in the past have done little to either nail down the culprits or push reforms to block a recurrence of a similar crisis in future. With Khan heading the government in his fourth year as prime minister, it’s hard to imagine a new beginning that will take Pakistan towards a more promising future. Indeed, the government’s repeated failures have now sealed its fate as an administration which is only capable of fighting one proverbial fire after another, all at the expense of rapidly diminishing hope for the future of Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s economy remains in clear distress – notwithstanding the repeated official claims of all is well. Undoubtedly for Pakistan, a key crop remains the country’s wheat plantation that ideally needs to be planted by mid-November. This year, however, the government’s failure to calculate the acreage and needs of this vital resource has seemingly landed Pakistan’s farmers to face one of the biggest shortages of urea – a widely sought chemical fertilizer. Though the authorities in Islamabad have turned to an old and trusted friend – China – for supply of urgently needed stocks of urea, that alone neither solves Pakistan’s challenges nor can it overcome the cost of neglect in the final shape of lower yields from the wheat crop.

Such tragic episodes have occurred in tandem with the harsh economic policies being pursued by Khan’s administration in the name of compliance with conditions under an IMF loan programme. Towards this end, the recent announcement of a new ‘mini’ budget may well push Pakistan into an economic slowdown with little hope of a recovery in the near future.

As Pakistan’s average households increasingly suffer, Khan’s ability to set the course for a more promising future remains increasingly in doubt. Within months, Pakistan’s election campaign in the run up to the national polls of 2023 is set to begin in effect. And with electoral considerations increasingly becoming a powerful reality in daily lives, any political player including Khan’s ruling party will have a diminishing capacity to oversee reforms notably unpopular ones.

At the very least, Khan must redouble his performance to continue with a holding operation to run Pakistan’s government more efficiently and responsibly till next years’ elections are out of the way. Till then, there is a diminishing possibility of witnessing rapid progressive change in Pakistan – South Asia’s second largest country and custodian of the Islamic world’s only country armed with nuclear weapons.

Notwithstanding key elements at the centre of Pakistan’s national profile when viewed from outside, the powerful reality witnessed this week of a government’s failure to rescue its own people stranded in a snowstorm will remain more meaningful in the country’s daily life for the foreseeable future. In brief, that will remain a reminder of no salvation for the average Pakistani for the foreseeable future.

The writer is an Islamabad-based journalist who writes on political and economic affairs. He can be reached at: farhanbokhari@gmail.com