We really don’t have any idea of the magnitude of plunder that our governments since General Zia ul Haque have indulged in. I only remember that when I went to South Korea and Japan in early 1985, and to U.K and U.S in late 1985, one dollar meant Rs seventeen in Pak rupees. During the era of Pervez Musharraf, the dollar value stayed in control at Rs. 60. When Shahid Khaqaan Abbasi left, the dollar was fluctuating between Rs. 120 and Rs. 127.
Today it is touching Rs. 160.
The two Mafia families that have dominated Pakistan’s political scene for one-third of a century alongwith General Pervez Musharraf, had brought Pakistan to virtual bankruptcy last year when Imran Khan took over. The outgoing government had ensured that it would be beyond the capacity or power of the succeeding rulers to avert default and economic meltdown. That Imran Khan’s government has succeeded in keeping Pakistan’s economy afloat is no mean achievement.
Undoubtedly the rising prices, the disappearance of the black money and realistic taxation have exposed the people to hardships, but this has happened because of the plunder that had gone on in the past, specially in the decade after Musharraf.
Imran Khan has largely depended on the bureaucracy he has inherited from the past governments for running the government. He did not have a magic wand to either change the character of this bureaucracy, or to replace it with a new one overnight. He had to act within the constraints he inherited.
The opposition’s hue and cry over the rising prices and the hardships being faced by the people can only be regarded as an effort to escape from the guilt of what it do to the country when in governance.
One hopes that IK is going to learn from the experiments he has made in the choice of the persons manning his government. His team is still in the process of shaping itself, and being built. The important thing is that he is leading from the front, as is evident from the way he has put life back into the Kashmir issue.
Those who are day-dreaming the exit of Imran Khan are living in what we call the Paradise of fools.
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