AUGUST 13, 2018 INDIA TODAY 23influence with the Afg han Taliban and,
of course, the looming shadow of the
Pakistani army over every other pillar
and institution of the state.
No wonder that even before the eu-
phoria over Khan’s victory has faded, the
national conversation is now domina ted
by two topics: who’ll run Khan’s Naya
[New] Pakistan, and how. All of which
make Khan’s job not just the toughest in
the world but arguably the worst.
STRESS FRACTURE
Unlike their contemporaries in many
other growing political economies, Pak-
istanis don’t crunch a lot of numbers.
There are only two pages of the lead-
ing English daily dedicated to business,
and one in the leading Urdu paper; there
is no weekly or monthly financial pe-
riodical of record in circulation; most
news channels have more staffers on
their entertainment or sports desks
than on their business desk; of the two
business channels in the country, one
has rebranded itself as a provider for
headline news, while the other features
cooking and fashion shows. Even in an
election year, debating the economy was
not a thing in the local security and pol-
itics-inspired polity, unless it had to do
with fat cats and their private jets (or, in
the case of the former first family, their
London properties). However, Khan’s
victory, and even the build-up to it, has
affected the financial markets and me-
dia in unprecedented ways.
The Supreme Court, which played
an instrumental part in paving the way
for Khan’s victory and decimating ri-
val Nawaz Sharif’s legal position, has
emerged as a Robin Hood-esque saviour
in the past months, thanks to its activ-
ist bench starting a national fund for
dams, checking the prices of sugar and
petrol, and even implementing quality
control on heart stents—global oil and
commodity prices be damned.
Of course, Khan will be expected,
even forced, to ride that populist, anti-in-
cumbent wave. Remember, he has man-
aged to get himself into power by being
the only mainstream leader to campaign
for almost a decade against corruption,
high expenditure and cronyism. Un-
like the Sharifs, whom he has managed
to overthrow, he’s big on hospitals and
human development, not helipads andSO WHO CALLS
THE SHOTS?
Pakistan’s army chief
Qamar Jawed Bajwa.
Will the GHQ-Imran
honeymoon last five
years?high-speed trains. Before the polls, he
was the only leader to have come up with
an inspiring but debatable US-style ‘100
Days Plan’, the highlight of which was
to lay the groundwork for 20 million
jobs. Difficult, but with Pakistan’s youth
bulge, breakneck urbanisation and the
expected service sector growth boom
expected with the China Pakistan Eco-
nomic Corridor influx, doable.
For now, the markets like Khan too.
After the polls, as he declared victory
in a 29-minute speech deemed the fin-
est in decades, with simple and spec-
tacular non-teleprompter oratory which
checked all the right boxes, he caused
the stock market to climb 2,500 points
(by six per cent) and the dollar to drop
against the Pakistani rupee for the first
time in living memory.
“We haven’t seen the markets react to
a speech like this before,” said Syed Atif
Zafar, head of corporate research for JS
Global. “The key to the climb was that
Khan’s speech wasn’t confrontational,
he had immense clarity. Peace and trade
with India, normalisation with the US,
stability with Iran, austerity mobilisa-
tion... he touched upon everything imp-
ortant, and built immediate confidence.”
Still, the rupee is expected to adjust,
and the market had already dipped five
days after the polls as coalition-building
by Khan at the Centre and in Punjab, the
largest, most important province where
the Sharifs still pose a threat, encoun-
tered gli tches. However, experts think
Khan will push through to govern from
Islama bad and at least two of four pro-
vincial capitals and that Pakistan’s fi-
nally on the right track, with rich friends
in high places.
“All emerging markets are under
pressure, not just Pakistan,” says Faisal
Aftab, a venture capitalist. “But China’sKhan expects
to beat back
the perception
of being
propped up by
the armySEBASTIAN WIDMANN/GETTY IMAGES