Some advice, a little praise & criticism

In 2022, a lot hangs in the balance for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Government following the completion of its almost three-and-half- years in power. The recent Khyber Pakhtunkhwa local bodies’ election upset, the rising economic insecurity for the masses, the instability in the region due to the precarious situation in Afghanistan and tensions with neighbouring India, as well as, a global pandemic means that the PTI has had a lot on its plate. Bol News asked seasoned political, academic and media persons about the future of the PTI and what advice they may have for the federal government.

The following are some of their responses…

  Mushahid Hussain, Senator

verall, the PTI’s performance has been disappointing during the past three years which is primarily due to the lack of a good team. Reverting to the tried and failed formula of the IMF bailout, blaming predecessors for all the present-day failings, and unprofessional media management coupled with too much ad hocism — both in the centre and in the provinces — has pushed the PTI to this stage where its graph is at the lowest ebb.

However, I must commend the government for its handling of the Coronavirus pandemic which has been appreciated by all quarters as well as internationally. Besides, the PTI regime has also handled the Afghanistan issue with clarity and courage.

I also would like to praise the government for devising a good National Security Policy that focuses on human security issues like health, population planning, climate change, food security and water scarcity. It is an appreciable initiative.

As for 2022, it’s all about the economy, strategic clarity on foreign policy issues like dealing with India and the US, and giving the country a healing touch by stop hounding and harassing the Opposition.

“Can they get rid of the IMF albatross, that’s the key question for the PTI Government regarding the economy in 2022.

  Ahsan Iqbal, PML-N Secretary General

am not at all hopeful about Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf pulling off any miracle in 2022 to improve its governance and performance in all sectors. The PTI government has not only destroyed the country’s economy, it has also failed on every other front including political, social and diplomatic.

Because of PTI’s poor performance, the opposition has won a majority of the seats in by-elections, both in Punjab and KP. People are clearly getting fed-up and disillusioned by the PTI’s performance.

On the other hand, due to the fantastic results of the by-elections, the confidence of PML-N and its workers has gone really high as its narrative of “Vote Ko Izzat Dou” is being responded positively by the general public.

Let me say that the year 2022 will be the year of elections as, according to him. Prime Minister Imran Khan has become totally irrelevant at all domestic and international forums and the country cannot afford such a government anymore.”

  Imtiaz Gul, Analyst

he three-and-a-half-year tenure of the PTI government has been a mixed bag. It tried to enforce some fundamental reforms in the health sector and in the ministry of finance through the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). Then, I think Covid also helped them in digitisation of a lot of data and services – medical services as well as small services like car registration and card payments online. But while counting these successes, I think that the PTI has failed to keep the status-quo at bay. It co-opted in fact a lot of the status-quo beneficiaries in the form of advisers and ministers, who are intrinsically opposed to any radical reforms.

PM Imran Khan’s focus has been on the welfare of the common man but unless the bureaucracy is reformed and its power is taken away it would be very difficult.  However, I believe that a number of good things have also happened like Point of Sales (POS) installation which directly monitor sugar mills, feed mills and flour mills. These are the small steps which would be visible I think in the next four or so years.

As a whole, I think PTI has failed in daunting the hold of the status quo on governance issues and that’s why it appears helpless in the face of rising inflation and couldn’t get a handle on it, or sugar, cement, wheat cartels. I think the PTI cannot regain its popularity or restore its credibility unless it takes more measures such as health cards which are currently available in KP and parts of Punjab. Even though the health card and Ehsaas Programme are geared towards the common man, unless the party can sell them in a convincing manner to the common man they are of no use.

  Lt Gen Retd Amjad Shoaib, Senior analyst

here are both negative and positive points one can draw from the PTI’s tenure so far. But they should not have made tall claims and so many promises to people earlier because that has backfired in a big way. The government has fallen well short of its goals of accountability and of turning the country’s economy around.

I noticed that whenever the government tried to tighten the screws of those responsible for corruption, various segments of society including lawyers and their bodies started protesting and that deterred the PTI. Surprisingly, it has also surrendered meekly to the powerful people in politics, bureaucracy, etc. That has really left the people disappointed.

The parliament has also remained completely dormant in these three years. The PTI did not engage the opposition opted for legislation through Presidential Ordinance.

Having said that, some of the good things that happened during the PTI tenure include opening of Kartarpur Corridor, handling of challenging situations in Afghanistan and India with reference to Taliban takeover and the Pulwama incidents respectively. Of course, the credit must also be given to PTI for handling the Covid-19 crisis in an extremely professional way.

I feel that PTI should focus on the unfulfilled promises in 2022 to keep its hope alive for the next polls. PM Imran Khan must make bold moves and change the chief ministers of both Punjab and KPK and that may improve things considerably for PTI. And now that PTI has drafted a national security policy, it should completely focus on implementing it to safeguard the country’s interests.

  Qazi Khizar , HRCP General Secretary

akistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf could not fulfill even a single of its many promises made before it took over the government. It is clear now PTI is not a representative party of the masses. In my opinion, PTI has made zero progress in its three years and rather than bringing any relief to the people, Imran Khan and his cabinet is only causing distress to the people.

Imran made tall claims to eliminate corruption, but nothing happened due to which the depression of the people increases to the great extent.

Prime minister Imran Khan has been making a fool of public by making tall claims, by telling them he will create a new Pakistan for them. But what he has really done is that he has just cursed his political rivals and have repeatedly dubbed them as incompetent and corrupt, presenting himself as the most competent and honest.

However, now the people have seen through him and his party and I feel they have no chance of getting elected in the 2023 polls.

  Dr Qaisar Sajjad, PMA General Secretary

would not talk about PTI’s progress so far. But yes, I am very much concerned about the slapping of the 17 percent GST on raw materials for the pharmaceutical products to gain Rs 45 billion revenue.

The medicines are already very costly and out of reach for the poor and the middle class which is lamentable. The inflation has become unbearable, even the middle class of our country feels burdened.

In such conditions, when there is scarcity of health facilities in public hospitals, the increase in medicine prices is unpardonable and a harsh move on PTI’s part.

We demand of the government to review its decision and stop further increase of drug prices to ease the difficulties of the poor people who are already suffering from the inflation and bad economic situation in the country.  Unless Imran Khan and PTI start taking measures for the betterment of economy, I do not see them regaining the kind of popularity they enjoyed before 2018.

  Dr. Tauseef Ahmed Khan, Teacher, journalist

e know well how important is it for a political party to acquire power and for that they work hard and is ready to make sacrifices. Though Imran Khan also worked hard to make PTI a national level party, I would say neither him nor his party’s ministers or Cabinet members made many sacrifices.

At least not as yet. Even though Imran campaigned against corruption and harped about accountability and tried his best to disqualify his rivals, in my opinion, he completely has failed in every department. He established his party 22 years ago, but within these three years of bad governance, all his hard work has been wasted.

Where are those youngsters and new faces, he promised will be inducted in Pakistan politics to ensure a bright future for the country?

The PTI unfortunately has also hired the tried and failed politicians of the previous regimes who are ruining the country. So, in my view, the PTI or Imran Khan are unlikely to get the attention of the masses in the 2023 polls.

  Ismail Khan, Editor North, Dawn

believe that the political situation is still fluid. If the recently held local bodies elections are any indication, then the dice is still in the hands of the so-called swing voters, who do not have any strong political inclination towards any one party, as political parties have retained their vote-bank without much erosion. In my opinion, it is the swing voters, who after being hit hard by price hikes, inflation and power and gas outages, have turned the tables on the ruling party.

Currently, there is no indication that the economic plight of the people is going to end any time soon. Therefore, I find that this is going to make things difficult for the sitting government to keep selling its ‘the opposition-is-corrupt’ mantra, as it continuously fails to perform. Furthermore, I strongly believe that the role of the establishment will be a deciding a factor in how the next two years play out for the PTI.

In the event that it chooses to stay neutral, the government may find it difficult to sustain itself given its marginal majority, which is going to continue to face the opposition onslaught. I think that the next few months will be critical in determining the PTI’s future.

  Shah Khawar, Lawyer and former Attorney General of Pakistan

think that the countdown for the PTI government has started and little time is left for it to deliver, with 2023 being a general election year. If the past track record of government is any yardstick the PTI is not expected to do something extraordinary for the welfare of the people in 2022.

If we look at the performance of the PTI over the past three and half years, in my opinion, we saw no remarkable achievement on their part. However, they did introduce a health card scheme, but that too only in KP and partly in the Punjab. By and large the people of Pakistan had high expectation from the PTI government when it came into power with the slogan of bringing change.

Secondly, I believe that the Covid-19 pandemic brought the national economy to a grinding halt, resulting in growing joblessness and an increase in inflation and price-hikes which only added to the dismal performance of the government. In their tenure so far, the PTI government at the Centre and in three provinces has faced serious issues with the people as they expected better governance and efficient use of available resources by the PTI.

For instance, I think that the governance issue with Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar had serious repercussion. So much so that the PTI’s own federal and provincial ministers had pointed out misgovernances on part of the CM Buzdar. Similar objections were also raised about KP CM Mahmood Khan, but Prime Minister Imran Khan decided to continue with both these persons despite the fact that serious governance issues had cropped up in both these provinces.

I think the PTI has wasted a lot of time and as they had failed to make any remarkable achievement in their three and half years rule. It is not expected that they would do something extraordinary for the welfare of the people in upcoming year, 2022.

  Zahid Khan, Former ANP Senator

he way we are running the affairs of the country the upcoming year will bring more woes and worries for the people of Pakistan. Even if the government wanted to give some relief to the people, they could not do it because of the tough conditions posed by the International Monetary Fund.

I firmly believe that, due to bad governance the coming year will see a flood of inflation and price-hikes which will make the lives of common citizens more miserable. Additionally, due to Covid-19 the national economy had already suffered a lot and the casual way in which the PTI government was running affairs during this time, one could not expect any good from them.

Furthermore, there non-seriousness is further exhibited in the case of the presentation and passage of a supplementary finance bill. The PTI government has tabled a finance bill at the National Assembly on Thursday 30 December 2021, in which the prices of essential commodities would further go up and ultimately just add to the troubles of the people already facing a severe financial crunch.

Keeping in view my 40-years of experience as political worker, I see little hope from the ruling party, or any other mainstream political party for that matter, to bring any realistic good for the people of Pakistan as all these political parties are ready to do anything to come into power and could do anything to appease the establishment.

  Dr Manzoor Ahmad Naazer, IIU Department of Politics and Int’l Relations Chairman

think PTI government will not bring any substantial improvement in the lives of the people, as over the past three and a half years in power they have done nothing significant for the public at large. In fact, their rule has been marred with bad governance and poor performance.

It is not a cricket match where you can cover poor performance in early overs by hitting fours and sixes in the last overs. In governmental affairs you have, first, to do the planning and then implement it. Here in case of PTI, I find that, they have wasted three and half year in power and now in the remaining period it will be very hard for them to cover up the slackness and bad governance on their part. In the presence of tough conditions of the IMF there is little room for the government to deliver or give some relief to the people who are already facing the heat of price-hikes and inflation.

I believe that, from day one, the PTI government has not taken things seriously at all. They have changed three finance ministers in three years while numerous changes in the ministerial portfolios and advisors had been made during this period as well. This inevitably has had a very negative impact on the continuity of the policies, with a change in guard occurring every other day.

I think every coming day will bring more troubles for the people of Pakistan who are already losing faith in the government as well as the system and ultimately things would head for anarchy.

  Dr Jamil Chitrali, UoP Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies HOD

find that a projection for the future of the PTI government during its remaining term can only be made when we consider the what has happened in retrospect. What happens in the next two years is entirely dependent on the indicators of the present and the performance of the PTI in the past years.

In my opinion, looking at the system that has existed in Pakistan in the past few years, including the country’s internal situation or what is happening in our neighbouring Afghanistan, it will only be a wishful thinking to expect any major change in Pakistani politics. This is because the hope is that if the political scenario changes both domestically and internationally in the region, then perhaps the situation in the country improves as well.

However, when I look at the current context and the way things are at the moment, it to me that 2022 might prove to be even more difficult for the people of Pakistan as I definitely see the existing inflation and price hikes growing even worse during this period. What will add to the plight of the people is that as things are now there are no concrete sighs of improvement in administrative matters, meanwhile the opposition is also not a playing a role that can guarantee any positive and practical change.

The most I can say is that 2022 will only give us improvement if there is a political change, be it in KP or in the entire country.

Also Read

5.3 magnitude earthquake shook several areas of Islamabad and KPK

A 5.3 magnitude earthquake shook Islamabad on Saturday, as tremors were felt...