Pakistan: PM waking up?

While the dharnas (sit-ins) in Islamabad achieved little and caused greater harm than good, one thing they made clear is that the Musharraf era changed Pakistan — an era that Nawaz Sharif and his loyal party members spent in exile and so missed watching those changes first hand. The substance of change was exposed by the dharnas and it is driven by anger: anger at injustice, at being ignored, deprived, belittled and fooled. Pakistan today is not willing to sit quietly while politicians assume office and do nothing. It appears Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif is finally waking up to the fact that what is perceived as an autocratic style negatively impacted his image and working through the bureaucracy rather than his political colleagues alienated people. The dharnas, as Aitzaz Ahsan said, reminded the PM of the importance of working with his political colleagues to govern. He has since taken the political forces on board while making major decisions. Carrying the support he received from political parties forward, on Thursday the PM told federal ministers that they will be regularly evaluated on their performance from this point on based on several criteria, failing which they will find themselves out in the cold.

The PM is also reportedly planning a cabinet reshuffle, a sign that he realises that the performance of his cabinet has not been up to the mark so far. The foreign affairs portfolio remains unfilled, which is unheard of, and the Defence Ministry has been handled by Khawaja Asif in addition to his responsibilities at the Ministry of Water and Power. His performance in both has been found wanting on a number of occasions, such as his belated realisation of the full scope of the power crisis.

What these blunders showed was that the PM’s team did not do their homework about the full extent of the problems they would have to solve and did not prepare solutions as a result while in opposition. Rather it seems they were planning on taking things as they come. This attitude may have passed in the 1990s but cannot today. For better or worse, media scrutiny is too widespread for politicians to get away with not performing on a regular basis and the public’s patience for incompetence and corruption has sunk to an all time low. The dharnas were a media-centric political tactic and perhaps proved to the PM what a different world Pakistan has become since he last took office in 1997. What the PM should also learn from this experience is that in order to get his priorities right and keep the public happy, he will have to re-evaluate his agenda in light of the recommendations he receives from the elected representatives. Working through parliament can help him improve his performance.

Given the events of this year, trust issues and personal preferences must be kept aside in the interests of delivering on the public’s requirements.