Dreams vs realities

I am lucky to have many friends who support different political parties but, more importantly, who understand that friendships are far more important than political affiliations. These days, though, some of my friends who supported or still support the PTI have become a bit defensive.

Perhaps it’s my fault; I can’t help but ask them if they are happy with the ‘tabdeeli’ they are seeing. A very few now despair – like Hasan Nisar Sahib – and say that they are surprised at how ill-prepared the PTI was. Their ire is especially directed at the PTI’s economic team, which they blame for the troubles the party has brought to our country’s economy.

But the majority of them still support the PTI and fall in one of two categories. First, those who say it is still early to judge the PTI; and that six months is not enough of a period to see results. I of course try to probe, asking them if they are seeing any initial results? Or, if it’s too early for even initial results, are they satisfied with the effort the PTI is making? Is there actually anything more to the PTI than just pleasing rhetoric? Is the direction of the government right? It’s difficult to get clear answers to these questions from my friends.

The second group is those who say that the problems the PML-N left behind were so huge that it will take the PTI much longer to change things. Some of them add that the PTI has to clean the mess of 70 years, meaning that not one government in their eyes has done much for Pakistan.

I, of course, say that if the PML-N and other previous governments were such a problem then wouldn’t their leaving government have in any case solved a lot of problems? Shouldn’t the fact that you have such non-corrupt, intelligent, well-prepared, humble, focused leaders at the helm of affairs make a huge difference? Am I just blinded by partisanship and not being able to see the improvement that is all around us?

Because what I see is that inflation is higher today than in the last four years, government borrowing is increasing at a faster rate than ever in our history, interest rates are higher today than the last four years, tax collection targets are not being met, deficit this year is expected to be higher than ever before and government expenditures, in spite of the PTI’s ‘austerity’ measures, are also expected to be the highest ever in our history.

My friends of course answer that the PTI is borrowing to repay loans that the PML-N took. But then I say the same thing about us and the PPP: that the PML-N took loans to repay the loans taken by the PPP. And the PPP can say the same thing about the loans it took – that it took loans to repay loans taken by General Musharraf. And either we are all equally correct or all equally incorrect. But it can’t be that the PPP and PML-N are wrong and the PTI is right.

Then there is also the little issue of the magnitude of loans being taken. If today the PTI is taking considerably more loans than the PML-N ever took – and it is – then you can’t argue that these loans are just to repay the existing debt. And in fact the PTI is not just paying interest on past loans, it is also funding current government expenditures from new loans.

When I make this argument, my friends have only one comeback to me: they ask me if I would like another cup of tea and a sandwich. Being a Memon and a noonie, I can never say no to tea or food so I stop arguing and settle for hot tea and a nice sandwich.

But my PTI friends, especially the impressionable ones (is there another kind?) must be quietly wondering at night when they can’t fall asleep (dare I say due to loadshedding?) what happened to their expectations. Forget the $200 billion stashed abroad; that was never going to come. But what about the $12 billion being taken outside Pakistan every year? Surely given that the PTI has assumed power, that money laundering must have stopped. Why are we not seeing some of those dollars in our State Bank?

Of course to PTI supporters it is an axiom of faith that all PML-N ministers were corrupt. (After all, why would an honest politician not join the PTI?) And PML-N ministers must have stolen billion of rupees (or dollars or pounds!). Now that the PTI has taken power, those billions should be saved. Why don’t we see any of that money in government coffers? Why is the PTI government borrowing as if there’s no tomorrow?

And when my PTI friends go to work in the morning after breakfast (assuming there was gas in the stove) and stop for inexpensive petrol on the way (after all, the PTI was supposed to pass on all savings from the decline in oil prices to consumers) they must wonder why, given the dream team Imran Khan has brought with him, they are not seeing any improvement in governance.

I mean how do you compare the “ineffective” and “lethargic” Shehbaz Sharif with the Wasim Akram of politics, Sardar Usman Buzdar, a man oozing with vision, charisma and capability? (It occurs to me that, given the oft-repeated comparison of Wasim Akram with Usman Buzdar, one of them should be very pleased but the other must hate it).

Talking about Shehbaz Sharif brings me to his brief speech in the National Assembly, before the finance minister presented his second mini-budget in three months. In his speech, Leader of the Opposition Shehbaz Sharif criticised the prime minister in the same way PM Khan used to criticise government leaders when he was in opposition. This must have offended the prime minister greatly, and in a fit of rage and to teach the opposition a lesson he had the National Assembly session prorogued.

This is the first time in Pakistan’s history that after the presentation of a finance bill the government has prorogued the National Assembly without passing the bill. But such was the anger of the prime minister at being spoken to in a manner he considered below his dignity that the session had to be prorogued.

For a long time now, former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif has been accused of acting like a Mughal king. However, those of us who have known him and have worked closely with him know him to be a kind, gentle and considerate man who always has time for others and is tolerant and polite to a fault.

The man accusing Nawaz Sharif of having a royal demeanour was none other than PM Khan himself. But the first time he’s been criticised in person in parliament, he shows intolerance worthy of a medieval European king.

I am actually glad that the PTI doesn’t get any legislation passed from the assembly; I fear it might introduce into legislation a ‘contempt of prime minister’ law, much on the lines of lèse-majesté laws in medieval Europe.

The writer has served as federal minister for finance, revenue andeconomic affairs.

Twitter: @MiftahIsmail