Renaissance Of PM Imran Khan’s Bygone Demeanor: Once Again Political Rhetoric Or Reality – OpEd

The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, has recently started preaching the same stance that he used to preach as political rhetoric for winning the General Elections of 2018. PM Imran Khan falsely entertained the dream of Naya Pakistan (New Pakistan) in his speeches and kept most of the already unaware and ignorant people further in a complex situation and in dilemma.

For instance, before the General Election 2018, he made promises which seemed weak based on ignorance from current domestic situation of the country and international structure in which third world nations are encircled. Such as, government school sector to be reformed, providing one crore jobs, five million housing units will be built, decreasing inflation, never going for a loan from IMF or other institutes, eradication of corruption, the spread of law and justice, will solve issues related to Baluchistan, a new province to be created in south Punjab, four new tourist resorts to be opened each year to promote and push tourism, skill-based education to be introduced in the education sector, will implement “one window operation” which will provide all residents and industrialists solutions under one roof, no political interference in civil service, curbing child abuse will be a top priority, Punjab police to be reformed, court cases to be resolved within a year, implementation of judicial reforms, PM house would be changed into university etc.

Likewise, in one of his speeches before the election, PM Imran Khan said that if the inflation rate increases within the country, people should understand that the Prime Minister of the nation is a thief. However, unlike the current situation where the rates of multiple items daily used by people have been increasing since PTI government. PM Imran Khan never repeats those words he used for the opposition, which was a ruling party before the 2018 election.

The uneducated and educated people (who have degrees/pieces of paper without any understanding and ability to rationalize things) believed that Pakistan would be a country where everyone gets a job. Even people from other countries would find employments within it. They thought that Pakistan would be the superpower and the dominant country of the world, just like America today. However, promises made by PM Imran Khan before elections are not implied or fulfilled. Increasing prices of things and the inflation rate have wrapped the whole Pakistani nation in its trap where poor and middle-class people face many difficulties to lead a smooth and comfortable life. In this regard, the leaders of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) repeatedly tell Khan of making false and unrealistic promises to the people of Pakistan, such as Maulana Fazul Rehman in one of his recent speeches, said “PM Imran had destroyed the country’s economy and rendered millions jobless”. Likewise, the vice president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Maryam Nawaz, also criticized the government of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) for recent increases in fuel prices other utility costs in the country.

After winning the election, that stance skipped from his head almost for three years. Now a sudden change in PM Imran Khan’s stance has generated various complexities within the society. After three years of the PTI government abruptly, PM Imran Khan has taken a different stance about the policies concerning Pakistan. Now he wants more time and another term to fix the multiple problems of the country’s people. Before the general elections in 2018, Imran Khan promised of those things that rationally were not possible by looking over the country’s current political, economic, social, and religious conditions within the estimated time given by him. The educated people of the country had realized when he was fantasizing the claims made by him through using the political rhetoric in the same manner as applied by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi throughout India. However, the massive number of people who were not educated and had no understanding of such things kept much expectation from Imran Khan and his speeches based on fiction rather than reality.

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s failure is primarily because of the intrinsic weaknesses of his government and partly because of the external factors and the birth and spread of Covid-19. No doubt the Covid-19 pandemic has wrapped the whole world in its trap so has Pakistan. However, Imran Khan has been trying to hide his inabilities and inefficiencies by using the excuses of the spread of Coronavirus. As far as the spread of Covid-19 is concerned, it has affected the whole world. However, the inflation rate in Pakistan has increased very fast, primarily because of the inabilities and lack of expertise of the economic team of the Imran Khan government.

Therefore, it will be better for the personality and image of Imran Khan as well as his government to make his policies and actions which must be based on original research and study conducted by the experts of concerned fields as they could achieve some fruitful and effective results resultantly common and poor people of the country would get most of it. If Imran Khan wants to make the coming government, then it must give results and benefits to the poor and middle-class people of the country. It could only be achieved by making the country’s economic, political, social, and religious conditions well and improved; otherwise, Imran Khan would also lose his respect, image, and status, which he achieved through his cricket career and political struggle.

*The writer is PhD scholar in the Department of Defense and Strategic Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, Pakistan.