Dear Imran Khan, Your Promise To Give Us ‘Naya Pakistan’ Is Hollow

Imran Khan may have ridden the populist wave but not much will change in his ‘Naya’ Pakistan

The results of Pakistan’s 2018 General Election are out, and bar a colossal failure at coalition building, former cricket star Imran Khan will be the country’s Prime Minister.

Khan’s positioning of himself and his party as a status-quo challenger in Pakistan, where electoral politics has long been dominated by the PPP of the Bhutto’s and the PML-N of Nawaz Sharif, appears to have resonated with the voter and propelled him to the highest echelons of power. Khan’s populist message has been simple. Focusing on his own clean record, he promised the accountability of his corrupt opponents and the ushering in of a ‘Naya’ (New), more prosperous Pakistan.

Political Theatre of the Absurd

However, what this new Pakistan will look like remains at best unclear and at worst ominous. Many of his campaign promises are lofty and bordering on the absurd. They range from the establishing of an Islamic welfare state modelled after the first Islamic state in Medina that existed nearly 1400 years ago to promising the creation of 10 million new jobs in 5 years in an economy that is already on its knees and in need of another international bailout.

Khan’s anti status-quo credentials are also questionable. His electoral success is marred by allegations of rigging that involved the pre-poll political castration of his main rival, Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N, and a highly controversial election where electoral procedure designed to ensure fairness appears to have been disregarded with impunity.

Every party except Khan’s has rejected the results and fingers are being pointed at Pakistan’s establishment (a euphemism for the country’s all powerful armed forces) which has directly or indirectly exercised control over the country for most of its history. A politician being in bed with the establishment and relying on them for support is a concept as old as Pakistan itself. The cost of such support has been handing over the reigns of key matters of governance to the establishment and turning a blind eye to their many excesses.

Fair Is Foul, Foul Is Fair

Furthermore, as Khan’s main rival Nawaz Sharif has repeatedly discovered, if the establishment bestows power, it can also take it away. The establishment holding considerable sway over Khan does not bode well for Pakistan’s fledgling democracy and is contrary to Khan’s message of transparency and accountability.

Khan’s political success has also been enabled in recent years by a huge influx of ‘electables,’ traditional politicians from the very political elite Khan claims to oppose. Many of these electables have reputations for massive corruption and the pursuit of personal gain.

For a politician who promised a new and clean leadership, the fact that a large number of his parliamentarians have been elected previously on tickets from his corrupt rivals is an ominous sign.

Question marks remain over whether Khan, whose parliamentary majority can be overturned by the departure of just a few parliamentarians from his party or his coalition partners, will rein in his electables. Allegations of corruption and mismanagement have also marred his party’s previous 5 year rule in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Province.

As He Likes It

Khan’s position on the rights of women in a country desperately in need of female uplifting is also highly problematic. In 2006, Khan voted against a women’s protection bill that would have reduced the burden of proof for women alleging rape from the grotesque requirement of four witnesses to the crime to the administration of a rape-test. He recently criticized feminism, arguing that it degrades the concept of motherhood.

Accusations of inappropriateness and harassment towards women have also dogged him in recent years, coming most notably from both his ex-wife and a female party leader.

Perhaps most problematic is the fact that Khan is soft on extremist forces in the country. Khan’s opponents often call him Taliban Khan as a result of his calls for negotiating with the terrorist outfit. His KPK government also granted a 270 million grant to the Haqqania seminary, an institution run by Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, the so called ‘father of the Taliban’ who counts among his many terrorist prodigies Taliban founder Mullah Omar.

Khan has also made electoral alliances with banned sectarian outfits and individuals who are on both Pakistani and American terrorism lists. In a country that has been rife with religious and sectarian violence for over a decade, the mainstreaming of extremist groups through Khan does not bode well for the future of tolerance and harmony in the country.

Imran Khan has ridden a wave of populist support that centers around his message of change, progress and accountability. Unfortunately, an examination of his politics points to the fact that not much will change in his ‘Naya’ Pakistan. Khan appears merely to be the new establishment backed face of the country’s old political elite, complete with even more problematic views on key issues such as women rights and extremism.

(The author is a 21-year-old Pakistani student at NYU. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)