Vantage point Peshawar
At least elections get politicians to talk about the people. Take Nawaz’s ‘naya Pakistan’ – which he sprang at the party convention in Peshawar – and the promises associated with it. Clearly the prime minister was not too pleased with the way the current provincial government has served the people. The effort has just not come up to Nawaz’s expectations. There are no major highways and no mega projects. Once the N-league is in the seat there will be plenty of motorways, of course, not to mention universities, libraries, etc.
The comparison was telling. The jabs at PTI, however expected, are setting the tone for local government elections and later the general election. But in promoting the trademark N-league development agenda – high-budgeted mega projects – the prime minister might be indulging in the wrong kind of marketing. The ruling party’s obsession with super highways and power plants betrays a stunning divorce from reality, and public discontent about people’s core needs being ignored is rising rapidly. In fact, rather than push the same model down other throats, the PM is advised to watch his own back yard. There are plenty of big projects in Punjab, yet the brush with the opposition not too long ago showed how easily big crowds gather to oppose the government.
There’s another very important side to making promises. And since Nawaz has been in the game long enough, he would not have to campaign too hard if he had followed this rule. And that is delivering on promises. People know which politicians to trust by their track record of honouring campaign pledges. And that is one area where Nawaz’s rhetoric cannot hide his inadequacy. So while promising more, he must also explain what became of old boasts, especially since this is not the first time he came up with a heavy mandate. It must be remembered, tough, that the present climate is also different from the past in some ways. The fight against terrorism is yet to finish. And whatever politicking takes place must take the war into consideration. Whatever promises are made in that regard, however, have to be kept. Otherwise it’s not just the people who will be at risk, but the ruling class as well. Nawaz should have seen that clearly in Peshawar.
