Pakistan is currently suffering from one of its worst economic and political crises in recent decades. Pakistan stock exchange is witnessing a swift decline, and prices of everyday items have risen sharply in recent days. Apart from the skyrocketing inflation, the government is also failing on the energy front and people are suffering from the worst load shedding amid sizzling heat. Despite all the promises, the coalition government seems to be failing miserably on the economic front. After becoming the Prime Minister, Shahbaz Sharif visited Saudi Arabia but the government could not get any relief package from there. In addition, the government delegation could not find any breakthrough in the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In the political arena where Imran Khan’s rhetoric is gaining strength day by day, the people’s hopes for the current government seem to be fading. A few months ago, the people in the current government, were marching against the former Prime Minister Imran Khan in the ‘Mehngai Mukao March’. The then Leader of the Opposition in Punjab Hamza Shahbaz and PML(N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz launched the ‘Mehngai Mukao March’ against the Imran Khan government and in their speeches slammed the then government over inflation.
But now despite their government in the federation and Punjab, there are no practical steps or plans in sight. On the other side, Bilawal Zardari, who used to be considered the future Prime Minister of the country, has confined himself to Twitter after taking the oath of foreign minister and is often seen responding to tweets from foreign ministers of other countries.
The new government has begun to show its true colors within a few weeks
Federal agencies like National Accountability Bureau, Federal Investigation Agency, and other government agencies are being used for the ego and political dissent of politicians instead of duties of the state. Similarly, the mainstream media like other institutions in Pakistan is not completely independent. Where a few months ago inflation was the country’s biggest problem for the mainstream media, today the priorities of media houses have changed dramatically.
To deal with this situation, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf resorted to social and digital media. While millions of party members were seen defending Imran Khan’s narrative on social media, the party’s central management held the largest space session in history on the social networking site Twitter. In addition, by arranging the largest and most successful political podcast in the history of Pakistan, PTI outperformed all political parties in the country.
Besides Imran Khan, PML(N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz is also seen busy in public gatherings. But despite being in the government, Maryam is not getting any special public support and approval. On the other hand, Imran Khan has increased the public pressure on the government by holding successful rallies in almost all the major cities of the country. In the current situation, there seems to be no other option than fresh general elections. After a large number of resignations from the National Assembly, the people’s confidence in the Assembly has waned.
The Common man is the real owner of Pakistan. And no political party should have any problem reaching out to the general public. Thus, collective wisdom must prevail and all political forces must agree to hold fresh and earlier elections in the best interest of the country and get the country out of this precarious situation.
Muhammad Adnan is a journalist and researcher. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Global Village Space.