An Evaluation Of The Performance Of Imran Khan’s Government – OpEd

Imran Khan, the current Prime Minister of Pakistan, was a hero of the country because of the reason during his captaincy of Pakistan’s National cricket team which won the only cricket world cup in 1992 in the history of Pakistan’s cricket. It was considered that he was the strict and good captain of the team who followed the just and unbiased policies and actions during his captaincy.

After the retirement from cricket Imran Khan stepped into the politics of Pakistan by making his party named Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf. His party ceased power by gaining the majority in general elections in 2018. Since then he is running the country as head of the state (Prime Minister). His role as a Prime Minister is vastly criticized by the people who are in disagreement with the policies and actions of Imran Khan. They further explain that he might have remained a successful and efficient captain but there is a huge difference between cricket and politics.

As for the question of politics is concerned, Khan has disappointed the people of the country because of the failure of most of his policies. Meanwhile, he has not shared a comprehensively, strategically and artistically made plan to get the people of Pakistan out of poverty, hunger, underdevelopment, suppression, violence, corruption, inequalities and many other misconducts. Rather he just explains the issues of the country just like an unprepared explainer who just have memorized the definitions without understanding the basic concepts.

There exist multiple points of views regarding the current situation of the country. Many people believe that Imran Khan Government has failed to control the increasing inflation rate as well as other political, economic, religious and social affairs of the country. Meanwhile, people were expecting something extra-ordinary from Imran Khan. These high expectations of the people of Pakistan were not only mere expectations but also the strong belief of people in Imran Khan. This belief and confidence were given to them by Imran Khan through his speeches before the election of 2018.

Various persons in the country consider that PM Imran Khan had to artistically handle all the problems and such staggering issues from which country have been suffering since long but he did not fulfil the expectations of the people. Furthermore, instead of going towards the solution and consuming energies in fixing all those mishandlings, he, all the time, consumes his energies in blaming the previous governments and make them responsible for all these mishandling and rising inflation country is passing through. Yet many people within the country believe that the previous government did not run affairs in a just manner. But it would be better for the government of Imran Khan instead of crying over the bad governance of previous governments, he should consume his energies to handle and fix mistakes done by the previous governments.

In this regard, not only many people but also all present opposition particularly Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) believes that Imran Khan is brought by the establishment but their experiment has come to an end badly because of the devastating and huge failure of Imran government to run the affairs of country smoothly. While Imran Khan, since the start of his government, has been repeatedly saying that his government and all institutes are on the same page and they have great coordination and cooperation among them. Furthermore, it can be one of the reasons that all the opposition of PTI have been facing multiple cases, in this regard, they want to pressurize PM Imran Khan through blaming and putting various kinds of charges against him. Let’s not put questions over the sincerity and honesty of PM Imran Khan, he may be very serious about solving the problems of the country. Meanwhile, looking over his policies and actions since coming of the government of his party. But his policies and actions show that he is not going on the right track because of the failure of his policies.

PM Imran Khan’s explanation of the fundamental problems of the country and its people portrays his picture as a bad explainer whenever he addresses a nation. By doing this, he portrays his understanding of national and international issues. Though PM Imran Khan tries to explain the technicalities of various problems even he does not explains in a way that common men could understand. He, since his government, weeps over the matters which were created by the previous governments particularly PML (N) and PPP.  In various speeches before his government, he repeatedly said that within 90 days the country would be brought on track. After the winning of the election in 2018, he has been changing his statements by saying that even five years are not enough to settle the problems of the country. In this regard, he needs more time to bring all disturbed matters in the right direction. While people are not such in a condition to wait for a long time for Imran Khan to bring changes. Moreover, increasing inflation rate and unemployment have added oil to the plights, difficulties, and multiple kinds of other problems faced by people in their daily lives.

Such circumstances of the country do not allow them to further believe in Imran Khan and wait for a long time along with all these sufferings. Pakistan has been experiencing a very complex and difficult situation therefore it is the responsibility of the present government to get the people of the country out of all these sufferings and complexities through their policies and actions. Similarly, Imran khan just has two and a half years remaining to prove his efficiency, intelligence, competence and capability through artistically drafted policies and actions. Therefore, this remaining time of the Imran Khan government will play an important role in deciding the results of upcoming elections.

*The writer teaches at the Department of Defense and Strategic Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, Pakistan.