Inside the Red Zone: Without a clue

The road to elections, it seems, is littered with ill intentions. With the Punjab Assembly on the brink of dissolution, naivete reigns supreme inside PTI bunkers. As the leadership and support base of the party gyrate to the music of discordant hope, and as political dynamics of the country shape-shift into yet another life form, it is becoming increasingly clear that the answers to our woes remain hostage to the whims of personal ambitions.

If this sounds a bit complicated, then consider this: PTI neophytes are mutilating their vocal chords shouting about elections as the panacea for all our problems, without having much clue how that may be so. Why? Because not a single leader among the party rank has explained what policy or strategy the leadership carries within its bosom to pilot us through the maze.

There are two reasons why this is important. First, among all of the PTI’s credentials, the weakest is its ability – or lack thereof – to run the country. If in doubt, think Buzdar. Or whatshisname in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Or even Shaukat Tarin. In fact, especially Shaukat Tarin. It was under his watch that the PTI government dynamited its own agreement with the IMF. This very act pushed the country to the brink of default. Forget for a second the so-called post-ouster narrative of the PTI chairman – based as it was on magnificent untruths - and recall the unmitigated disaster that defined his governance. Even in quasi-normal times, the PTI ran the federal, Punjab and KP governments to the ground.

Second, the party has a sum total of zero plan about what to do with the political convulsions that have fed directly into the economic problems we are facing today. Unless some basic understanding about the rules of the game is reached between the political parties, elections will only produce more of the same. The trouble with the PTI is that it is a product of this revulsion and also its creator. For now there are no chances that the PTI is interested in untangling the political knots it has knotted itself.

How then can the party have the answers when it cannot even bring itself to ask the right questions?

And now this same team, afflicted by the same incompetence and burdened by the same track record of failure, wants the nation to believe that it will steer the country out of the difficulties that it has birthed. Even though this is quite a stretch, one could extend them the benefit of doubt if the PTI team could answer three very basic questions.

One, would the PTI go back to the IMF programme? If so, how would it explain blowing up the agreement its own finance minister Tarin had signed on? If it won’t go to the IMF, what other option will it exercise?

Two, will it request friendly countries to roll over the debt and commit more loans and investment in Pakistan? If so, isn’t this exactly what the present federal government is doing? If not, does it expect overseas Pakistanis to make up the shortfall? And if that be so, er, really?

Three, will it make Usman Buzdar the Punjab chief minister again?

If you are waiting for the answer to these questions, don’t hold your breath. The cutesy quips and smirks and sniggers that people like Fawad Chaudhry sport with unvarnished condescension may make for fun optics, but are a poor substitute for knowing how to run a country. The major difference between pre-and-post ouster PTI is the growing pile of hubris on display. And hubris has a nasty habit of being shaken when least expected.

Especially when such hubris collides with the requirements of statecraft. The PTI chairman’s delusions of grandeur may rile up his fan base but such delusions run the risk of coming undone under the heat of specific practicalities. This brings us to the next set of questions that the PTI may want to answer if it believes elections are the only solution to the present woes. Here goes:

One, does the PTI still believe the US brought about Imran Khan’s ouster? If so, will it say so if confronted by the question in a bilateral diplomatic meeting? Would it feel any shame extending a hand to those that threw their government out? If not, would it prefer swallowing this shame? If it does not believe the US brought about his ouster, does that mean Mr Khan was lying about the accusation?

Two, does the PTI believe in CPEC? If so, will it change its policy of slowing down the CPEC when it was in power? Will it also admit to China that it was wrong in pursuing that policy and now stands chastened? If so, will the party apologize to the people of Pakistan for causing so much harm to the CPEC? Or does it still stand by its previous policy and will once again slow down CPEC if it comes to power?

Three, will the PTI admit that its policy of alienating Turkey by cracking down on Turkish companies in Punjab and confiscating their equipment was wrong? Would it acknowledge that this brazen attempt to browbeat Turkish companies to force them to say their contracts were products of corrupt practices went all the way up to the highest levels of the Turkish government and placed our bilateral relations under stress? Will the PTI apologize to the Turkish companies and invite them back? Or will it continue the same policy and once again wreck the ties that have so painstakingly been repaired by the present government?

Four, how will the PTI’s policy towards Afghanistan be different from what it is today? What will it say to the Taliban government about the presence of the TTP on their country’s soil? Will Imran Khan once again invite TTP terrorists to return and settle in Pakistan as he has claimed in a recent interview? If not, then how would the PTI’s approach be different from that of the present government? And looking at the banning of girls’ education by the Taliban, does Imran Khan still believe that Afghans have broken the ‘shackles of slavery’?

Five, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government has succeeded in winning ten billion dollars’ worth of pledges from the world for flood relief, and also gotten billions worth of investment and loan rollovers from friendly countries like China, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar. What would Imran Khan do differently?

The answers to these questions would allow the people of Pakistan to figure out whether the PTI is all hot air or it has actually thought things through. Contrary to the belief among the PTI, running the country is no joke. You can’t roll into office mid-morning, hold inconclusive meetings, lecture an army of spokespersons and then saunter home by early evening.

Real work is the kind that went into making the Geneva conference such a success. It entailed the leader chairing long meetings to work out minute details of the reconstruction and rehabilitation plan that ultimately shaped into the 4RF document. It is this document and the Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) that convinced the multilateral and bilateral donors that Pakistan had indeed done its homework and was ready to put the money to good use.

The PTI would put its energies to good use if it would then answer these final three questions:

One, what are the three lessons it has learnt from its disastrous stint in government?

Two, is it humbled by its failures?

Three, does it have a plan? Or a clue?

The writer is the special assistant to the prime minister on public policy and strategic communication. He tweets @fahdhusain