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| Global Lenses |
Pakistan's new prime minister is promising to fix his economy and re-establish ties with allies. After Imran Khan's no-confidence vote, the MPs elected Shahbaz Sharif, but can they overcome the political divide and deal with domestic and foreign policy challenges better? Sharif has been sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Pakistan. He is replacing former opposition leader Imran Khan, who was removed from office in a no-confidence vote. Sharif will now form an interim government until general elections are held sometime next year. As he settles into his new office, tens of thousands of Imran Khan's supporters are protesting against his removal, and more than 100 MPs from Khan's party have resigned in protest.
After weeks of
uncertainty and what seemed to be a political sensation, Pakistan now has a new
Prime Minister. The 23rd Prime Minister, Mr. Shahbaz Sharif was sworn in on
Monday evening. Significantly, the outgoing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had
decided to resign from parliament, saying that there were serious allegations
of corruption against Shahbaz Sharif. They will not continue in the parliament
that they considered an importing government. Imran Khan has already appealed
to his people to get out. Tens of thousands of people turned out across the
country and this is being seen as a confirmation of Imran Khan's position that
there was a foreign conspiracy to overthrow his government through a vote of no
confidence. Imran will want early elections, but the new party in power, an assortment of nine political parties that have
managed to unite on an agenda to remove Imran Khan, wants the electoral reforms
that Imran Khan's party did not agree on. The next few weeks and months will be
important for Pakistan.
The administration
coming to Islamabad will have to deal with a number of domestic and foreign
challenges. Inflation is over 12% and Pakistan's foreign debt is $130 billion
which is 43% of its GDP. Attacks by armed groups are on the rise. Negotiations
between the government and the Pakistani Taliban have failed and will need to
improve relations with the West, which deteriorated recently when Khan accused
Washington of plotting to overthrow him. Kashmir is also in conflict with
India, security in Afghanistan, and the government will need increasing
oversight of Chinese investment.
Popular
support for Khan:
When there is
talk about support, it always comes to my mind, we are living in the age of dot
com and we should not forget how easy it is to connect young minds because the
66pc of the total population of Pakistan contains young people. Today young
people are not engaged to you or me or anyone else, they are busy on the phone.
It is very easy for anyone to manipulate this social media or install their own
agenda. What do we believe at the moment, what actually happened when PTI came
to power in 2018, almost four years after they hijacked the young prince of Pakistan
to set their own agenda. We are seeing this today because the youth are not
ready to understand the constitution of Pakistan. What is important for
Pakistan is democracy and whatever happened in the last few days, nothing
happened according to the constitution. (Maria)
Opposition’s
Unwillingness to work with Government:
We are fully
aware that we were in government for three and a half to four years when food
prices were skyrocketing around the world, yet the PDM movement could not
submit for what has happened to the government in the last 30 to 60 days. Where
this magical glue has brought everyone together and brought it to topple the
government? Conspiracy gathered all of them. While our government was at the
lowest level in terms of public opinion polls or public opinion polls, they still couldn't manage to do it. In the
end, why are we not participating and resigning from the assembly just because
we think it is an illegitimate government and if we are sitting in the
assemblies with what we feel foreign interference will legitimize the government.
Read more: Pakistan in crisis
Imran khan and
Military:
The military
has its own constitutional role and has made it very clear that it is not
interfering in the political process If I recall correctly the statement given
by DG ISPR a few days ago. But it's not a matter of the military getting into the fray of the thing. This is a matter
of constitutional process. There have been some allegations of foreign
intervention. The new Prime Minister, Mr. Shahbaz Sharif, in his inaugural
address, has indicated that the government is going to set up a security commission
to look into the matter. He was very bold to say, "If we have the
slightest hint that we have played into the hands of foreigners, then I am
ready to resign.” Over time we should all understand that this was a democratic
process and if you count the votes then these were the coalition parties that
were earlier with the PTI and now they are with the opposition parties ie PMLN
and PPP. Therefore, these are the allied parties, the so-called members of
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) who are not properly considering their policies.
They did not vote in the no-confidence motion. This is a democratic process and
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said that we are not going to take revenge
against anyone or go against anyone. Therefore, if Imran Khan and his party
think that they should get out to the streets, it is their democratic right if
it is within the political jurisdiction and under the law of the land. They
must come together to raise their voices and if they are able to garner so much
support and destabilize the government, push them into new elections. Let it be
so, but for the time being we must all accept the democratic process and the
law of the land. (Iqbal Z)
Economic situation:
There are cases against almost everyone, even
some cases against former Prime Minister Imran Khan. The same is true of other
leaders of the country. So if I am not playing the blame game here, the point
is that the situation in Pakistan is a very critical one. It is a matter of foreign
exchange and inflation. The common man, especially covet and the economic
downturn in Pakistan as a whole has broken his back. So now is the time to get
together, to get some kind of stability in things, to get out of these
mysterious things. Look at the things that are for the betterment of the
people. I would say that the PTI has every right to take to the streets if
they are peaceful and if they are saying what they want to say and express it.
There is freedom of speech. They have every right to say so but the government
has now left the opposition and it is now their responsibility to do what they
have to do to maintain the economic stability. The Pakistani economy is at a
critical moment, it is quite uncertain. The foreign exchange rate is alarming.
Let me tell you about the policies adopted by the previous government were not
literally advisable. They changed three finance
ministers within a timeframe of more than four years. Something has been done
that was not appropriate at the time. Therefore, these economic conditions got
out of hand.
The new Prime Minister has his own policies. There
will be parliamentary commissions for the economy which will be in favor of
Pakistan. We should look at not only the economy but also foreign policy is heading
for disaster. That is why whatever disaster the previous government has left is
the biggest challenge for those who just took the oath yesterday and it is the
biggest challenge for the PPP, PML-N, and all their allies because it is a huge
responsibility. The common man has high expectations of them.
Foreign conspiracy and US relations:
The hands of the new Prime Minister are full.
He has come up with an international conspiracy mandate that you said we did
not prove is completely wrong. The National Security Council was called which
includes the three chiefs, the navy, the army, and the air force. The current
opposition leaders were all invited to the National Security Council. All they
refused to come. The three chiefs of staff signed off that. They felt there had
been interference and that the words and notes used at the meeting in
Washington were unacceptable. The letter contained that they were not willing
to work with Imran Khan and if the government removed, faults
would be omitted. This is what the three leaders have signed off and gone
to the Supreme Court. The letter was given to the national speaker because it
is a confidential letter. There are some rules and requirements that need to be
addressed, but the opposition did not want to see it. They rather avoided it. They're
in power now and they can get through it and if they can find a way to make it
public, it should be made public. It is wrong to say that the letter was bogus because
it has gone through the highest level meeting of the Security Council. When we
talk about democracy, is it a democratic movement? No, it's not. It is an
alliance of people who are either out on bail or have fled, or their brothers
have escaped as convicted criminals in London. Nawaz Sharif’s brother is now
the prime minister and is currently on bail. The leaders of the Pakistan
People's Party (PPP) are themselves known internationally as criminals. This is
not a democracy, this is an alliance.
Pak-US relations:
The truth is that there must have been some
loss because if you are dragging international players into domestic politics
then this is a very dangerous line drawn by the PTI government and not only
very difficult for it, but maybe in the next election if the PTI wins the
election and it comes back to power in Pakistan after the 2023 election or
whenever there are elections. As far as allegations against politicians are
concerned, it will be very difficult for them to handle. (Maria)
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Zulfiqar
Bukhari, Former Special Assistant to Former Prime Minister Imran Khan
Maria Iqbal Tarana, the General
Secretary of the Human Rights Wing of Pakistan's People's Party
Zubair Iqbal, A
Political Analyst and Pro-Rector At the National University of Modern Languages
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