AUGUST 13, 2018 INDIA TODAY 1P
rime Minister Imran Khan. This
is something Pakistan, India
and, indeed the world, will need
to wrap their heads around.
As someone who’s watched Khan over
the years, from his days as the charis-
matic cricket captain of Pakistan, I least
expected the glamour boy to transition
to PM of his country, though I did find
him sincere, dogged and passionate in
all that he did. Be it winning the Cricket
World Cup in 1992, to setting up a chain of
cancer hospitals named after his mother
or taking the political plunge in 1996. In
his first election in 1997, his party did not
win a single seat. To his credit, he did not
give up. His tenacity has to be admired.
He can be consistent, too. At the india
today conclave in New Delhi in 2003,
seven years after launching the Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaf, he spoke of standing up
to vested interests and the “small cor-
rupt elite that keeps siphoning off all the
resources. The rich get richer and the poor
poorer”. A tenor not very different from
his victory speech a day after the July 25
general elections where his party emerged
as the single largest formation.
Khan is well-intentioned, cares about
his country and is in politics to make a
difference. Now for the hard part. He steps
into the driver’s seat of a nuclear weapon-
armed country riven by sectarian strife,
whose notable exports are the jihadists its
terror factories pump into India and Af-
ghanistan even as Pak istan’s economy tee-
ters on the brink of bankruptcy. The Paki-
stani rupee is in free fall and the foreign
exchange reserves perilously low. Among
Khan’s first tasks will be to go, hat in
hand, to the International Monetary Fund
for a loan of up to $12 billion. An IMF
loan will come with strict conditions that
will strictly curtail the public spending
key to his promise of ‘Naya Pakistan’. The
country’s relations with its major benefac-
tor, the US, are at a nadir; he has also been
a severe critic of America through most
of his political career. Besides, Khan has
no administrative experience since he has
never held elected office. It seems a lot like
a newbie cricketer going out to face the
ferocious West Indies pace bowlers of the
’70s with no protective gear.
He also has to deal with the overween-ing influence of the Pakistan army that has
ruled the country for 33 of its 71 years of
existence. He must also counter criticism
that he is a marionette of the military. I
think such accusations grossly underes-
timate this charismatic leader who can
be bold, audacious and headstrong. This
is where I think he will, sooner or later,
become a problem for the army. There
is a belief that as long as the army does
not change its foreign policy perspective,
nothing will change in Pakistan. The army
wants India as a permanent enemy and to
be a dominant force in Afghanistan.
Our cover story this week, put together
by Wajahat S. Khan, our contributing
writer from Pakistan, examines Khan’s
challenges. Group Editorial Director
(Publishing) Raj Chengappa looks at what
India can expect from Khan.
Relations between India and Paki-
stan are wildly unpredictable and swing
from extremes of friendship to war and
near-war. I met Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif shortly before he swept to power
on a landslide verdict in 2013. He prom-
ised peace. At a breakfast meeting in
Lahore, he told me that Pakistan would
soon buy power from India. We saw how
quickly that degenerated into bitter acri-
mony—terror attacks at Pathankot and
Uri followed by cross-border retaliatory
raids by the Indian army. In the India-
Pakistan relationship, one lives with
disappointment and hope.
In his victory speech, Khan said he
would take ‘two steps’ for every positive
Indian step. Prime Minister Narendra
Modi congratulated him on his victory
and hoped that democracy will emerge
stronger in Pakistan. There’s hope of peace
talks between the two but only a small
window that will soon shut when PM
Modi goes into election mode and Khan’s
honeymoon period ends. Both leaders
need to move fast. I’ve always maintained
peace is the only way forward if India and
Pakistan are to realise their development
goals and lift their people out of poverty.
We need to give peace a chance. Again.(Aroon Purie)
FROM THEEDITOR-IN-CHIEF
All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of
competent courts and forums in Delhi/New Delhi onlyEDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Aroon Purie
GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Raj Chengappa
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Volume XLIII Number 33; For the week
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