Broken domestic and foreign policy
Few people outside the PML-N will deny that both internal and external policies are so broken down that they should have been reset a long time ago. Domestic politics, for the time being, is centered around the prime minister’s survival. The question of him temporarily stepping down while someone else takes his place is not fine with the government. It is, therefore, completely about the Sharif family. And the longer the Panama fallout lingers, the more governance, etc, will remain hostage to a power-play that has nothing to do with the people.
The foreign environment, strangely, is even stranger. PML-N apologists shoot back at critics – quite ironically – that the foreign component is the preserve of the military. And if Afghanistan has finally put its foot down, the US has turned with a much stiffer ‘do more’ position and ties with India are headed south again, the ruling party deserves very little if any of the blame. Interestingly, few N-leaguers seem to realise that while the foreign policy argument may win them debates on prime time TV, it will not sell as well at the election. And of course the people and the country will suffer endlessly till these matters are taken care of.
The rest of the world, meantime, is moving on, and South Asia is no exception. Islamabad should have seen the India-Iran-Afghanistan coming. A lot of this sudden isolation is its own fault. It did not move fast enough, or in the right direction, when Iran was freed of sanctions. And despite bringing together four countries, its position on the Afghan Taliban remained vague at best. With India, too, there’s been nothing to write home about after Pathankot. The government must pull itself together or there’ll be little left to salvage, inside the country and away.
