Prime minister imran khan has his work cut out new delhi must engage the pakistan army directly

Prime minister imran khan has his work cut out new delhi must engage the pakistan army directly

Imran Khan means well. His first act as prime minister has been to reduce the number of his ‘mulazims’ (servants) and bulletproof cars. He wants to fix the economy, push development, give free loans, cut expenses, increase tax base, create a new southern Punjab province.

Having won a primed (To tell someone something that will prepare them for a particular situation) and prepped election, Imran is keen to show that he arrived at Aiwan-e-Sadr “on his own feet”, something he repeated more than once in his speech on Sunday. Khan will have a honeymoon period, but he is inheriting (Genetically passed or capable of being passed from parent to offspring) a nation more beleaguered than ever before.

He has made the right moves by appointing Ishrat Hussain and Asad Umer to the difficult job of straightening the economy. It should calm investors and financial institutions, because they are stable hands and know their job.

They will have to steer Pakistan’s economic fortunes through an IMF bailout, debt repayments and CPEC irregularities. With an FATF greylist, that’s not going to be easy.

Ideally, for Pakistan to thrive economically, it should wean itself from (To detach someone from something to which one is strongly habituated or devoted:) Chinese debt. But its terrorism/corruption mix has kept it out of bounds for others, leaving it with only China. US will hold Pak feet to the fire at IMF, but China doesn’t want its loans scrutinised. Pakistan will be the only loser in that tug of war.

Pakistan’s biggest problem is not the Chinese debt trap, IMF or civil military relations. It is the full blown radicalisation of and terrorism in the country, which has killed hundreds just during the election campaign. Ideally, Khan should take a stab at weakening this particular sector, if he wants a shot at all his other governance promises.

Imran’s maiden speech did not include mention of Kashmir (unlike predecessor Nawaz Sharif), but did not touch upon terrorism either. That shows his actual limits.

Many of the religious parties failed to score in the elections, which is unsurprising. But while they failed to get seats they have all increased their vote share substantially. The hardline MMA is now part of the opposition alliance, while Tehreek e Labaik Pakistan (TLP), the new kid on the jihad block, has won two seats in Sindh and shot up its numbers to 2.23 million. There is dwindling (Diminish gradually in size, amount, or strength.) public support to roll back the jihad industry. Without movement on this front, there will be no weakening of the army’s vice-like grip on the government and nation. Expect more cross-border terror in India and Afghanistan.

Moreover, Imran’s decision to divide Punjab to create a southern Punjab will be a process full of confrontation. His first step in this direction is the appointment of Usman Buzdar as CM Punjab. For the army, it makes sense to break up Punjab, which will also break up the chokehold it has over the rest of the country and splinter the Sharifs’ empire. In Sindh for example, the MQM split has opened it up for competition.

India and Pakistan have not had an official conversation since the Pathankot attack, though NSA Ajit Doval and Nasser Khan Janjua used to be on the phone with each other. The composite (Made up of several parts or elements) dialogue died a long time ago. India has effectively killed Saarc, even though both Pakistan and Nepal are keen to restart it. Pakistan has tied trade to Kashmir, so that’s out. Except for the DGMOs, nobody is looking at the other. This silence is a relief in many ways.

But it has value only for a limited period. At some point, some engagement is in order.

It’s unlikely there will be much movement until India’s own elections next year, but MEA needs to work on options that can be put into practice sooner rather than later, without compromising on the fundamental ask that Pakistan should give up terrorism as state policy.

Small steps with low ambitions are probably least troublesome. Student exchanges, sport, musicians and actors should have free movement. We can lighten foreign minister Sushma Swaraj’s Twitter burden and allow sick people to be treated in India without her intervention. If the Modi government could show maturity by giving a visa to David Headley’s half-brother, we can continue to fight terror and still allow ordinary movement.

Ultimately, we should find ways to engage the Pakistan army, without wasting too much effort on the civilian leadership. US, China, Russia all happily engage Rawalpindi. We can make the first move.