The Khan’s lonely pursuit

Need for change?

Perhaps the only politician supporting the Khan’s original dharna plan was Sheikh Rashid Ahmed who has never hidden his abhorrence for the Sharifs

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) planned march to Raiwind — the prime minister’s abode in Lahore — is floundering before it has even begun. The first chink in the opposition’s armour was the sudden departure of the enigmatic cleric Dr Tahir ul Qadri (TUQ) for London. Leaving Imran Khan and his cohorts high and dry.

TUQ and his charged supporters were the essential software for the PTI’s putsch towards Raiwind. But alas it was not to be. Like during the 2014 dharna the Allama, after spewing fire and brimstone-ad nauseam 24/7-simply packed his bags one fine day and left. No explanationsoffered.

The level of disappointment amongst PTI’s leadership can be gauged from Shireen Mazari’s tweet according to which, “TUQ is Pakistan’s Gulen in so many ways.” Fethullah Gulen, a religious scholar of great repute, self-exiled in the US leads the Gulen movement. The Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accuses the extremely influential Turkish cleric of having instigated the recent military coup.

Taking umbrage on Mazari’s tweet PAT’s (Pakistan Awami Tehreek) leader Raheeq Abbasi retorted in his tweet that, “PTI can never progress as long as people like you (Mazari) are in the party.”

Other parties that pay lip service to the Panamagate probes were in any case reluctant to participate in the Raiwind march. The Chaudhries of Gujarat (no friends of the Sharifs) reckon that a dharna (sit-in) to political opponents’ houses is not good politics. The PPP and Jammat-e-Islami also expressed their inability to join.

Perhaps the only politician supporting the Khan’s original dharna plan was Sheikh Rashid Ahmed who has never hidden his abhorrence for the Sharifs. Perhaps owing to the stiff resistance even from within the party as well, the PTI chief has been forced to review his plans.

Party stalwarts are meeting today, to evolve a new strategy. High time Khan and his core team took another look at PTI’s tactics and direction not only pertaining to the Panama leaks protests but in the larger context as well.

Sharifs in the past five months have effectively scuttled the Panama probe simply by doing nothing about it. And the opposition, despite paying lip service to ‘root out corruption’ and to take the Panama probe ‘to its logical conclusion’, for reasons quite obvious does not really want ruthless and across the board accountability. Perhaps Imran Khan is the only exception to this rule.

In the meanwhile the Sharifs are literally laughing all the way to the bank. The PML-N cynically believes that the Panama leak issue does not affect the ordinary voter, as the man on the street does not give a damn about the nuances of white-collar crimes.

For all practical purposes IK is at a crossroads. His quixotic pursuit to dismantle the Sharifs during the past three years through street agitation has simply not borne fruit.

The 2014 dharna floundered much earlier, even before it was abandoned in the backdrop of the Army Public school attack in Peshawar in December 2014. During thefour-month sit in at D-Chowk Islamabad, Khan simply did not get the tail wind from the fabled third umpire.

TUQ abandoned him much earlier after correctly smelling the coffee beans. The shrewd Canadian cleric, it seems, is more interested in his ‘chanda’ (donations) collection politics in the west rather than sweating it out in the sweltering heat and humidity of Lahore and Islamabad.

Crowds at PTI’s recent protest rallies have been much less in numbers as well as in the level of enthusiasm. Some attribute this phenomenon to the disillusionment of the traditionally young and idealistic supporters of IK at the hands of traditional politicians inducted en masse in the party.

Paradoxically, however, the PTI’s performance in the two recent bye-elections in Punjab should be a source of some encouragement for the party. Both in Jhelum and Burewala in Punjab the PTI lost, but with a much smaller margin than in the past.

With less than one and a half years left for the next general elections, perhaps it is time for the PTI leadership to review its tactics. Khan stomping all over the country scathingly criticising the Sharifs’ style of governance and lack of transparency has perhaps contributed to damaging their brand.

But perhaps now the time has come to concentrate on party matters and evolving an election strategy. Intra party elections are somewhat of a conundrum for the PTI chief. If held too close to the general elections the divisions created as a result of party elections will impact upon the ticket awarding process and the general elections as well.

Party elections in Pakistan perhaps with the sole exception of Jammat-e-Islami are usually a sham. Parties evolve around the persona of the chief and his core team. In the ultimate analysis the same is true about the PTI.

It posits itself as an agent of change. But practically speaking dominated by entrants from other parties it is no different from the rest of the political parties. Those PTI ideologues that expect a change practically live in cuckoo land.

In the din of politicking a perceptible decline in Pakistan’s fortunes is being overlooked. The opposition is simply missing the wood for the trees.

Take the case of the floundering economy despite claims to the contrary. Pakistan since 2013 is facing a situation where its exports are continuously on the decline. During the much-maligned Zardari era they had reached $25 billion annually and now are around just $20 billion. Even countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam have overtaken us.

Sharif, the other day, pulled up his rather obese commerce minister, Khurram Dastagir. He tauntingly said that if the minister concentrated as much on promoting exports as much as he did on consuming food perhaps exports would pick up.

But on a serious note, the malaise runs much deeper. Structural problems as much as flawed policies and priorities continue to haunt our economy.

Last week the prime minister headed a meeting in Karachi with top exporters, businessmen and bankers to evolve a strategy on promoting exports. Despite (or perhaps because of) his economic czar Ishaq Dar in tow nothing practical came out of the meeting.

Textile tycoons present in the meeting suggested additional export rebate for themselves as a panacea for promoting exports. No one was willing to address the nub of the problem.

Sharif and his finance minister are fixated upon keeping the rupee overvalued in US dollar terms. If the prime minister had his way he would like the rupee to be valued at less than Rs100 to a dollar.

The Pakistani rupee is one of the most overvalued currencies in the region as well compared to other competing countries. However voodoo economics and jaundiced monetary policies of the present regime obviate any innovative thinking.

The recent visit of Afghan president Ashraf Ghani to India with New Delhi offering Kabul $1 billion economic assistance and an increase of $10 billion in trade in the next decade should be some cause for concern to Islamabad. Coupled with its regional isolation and economic decline Pakistan’s relations with its traditional ‘frenemy’, the USA, are also faltering.

Apart from Panamagate, these are only some of the vital issues which the opposition should be highlighting giving policy alternatives as well.