The One Page has been helpful, of this there is no doubt.
And at least a dozen other serious to semi-serious crises. Three changes of finance minister, including one devastating Senate embarrassment, and the totally unnecessary demotion of Shaukat Tarin. A mini conflict with India in February and March of 2019. At least two crises in the Pakistan-Saudi Arabia relationship (at least one of which was entirely avoidable). A self-inflicted standoff with the US that was entirely avoidable. A massive overhaul of the system in Afghanistan.
Let’s enumerate some of them, for effect, and to jog the memory a little bit. The enterprise that is the Imran Khan political machine has demonstrated remarkable resilience in overcoming a long list of challenges. But it must also be said: there sure are a heck of a lot more PTI supporters than the PTI’s enemies would have us believe. It must be said of course: there may not be, nay, there certainly are not, as many PTI supporters as PTI supporters would like us to think there are.
And the slights, plus Notification Gate, which was supposed to unleash the gates of Armageddon, have had no discernible impact on the passage of thirty-three bills – yes, that’s right, nearly three dozen new or amended laws. This is no slight to the Imran Khan supporter, or to Imran Khan: the slights seem to have had little to no impact on his ability to maintain office, or to retain support among his core constituents. The Imran Khan supporter would happily watch the entire edifice: parliament, federalism, the republic itself, all of it, burn to the ground, if it meant that the honest and dedicated Imran Khan could just be allowed to deliver on all his promises without all these troublesome obstacles. The Imran Khan supporter isn’t sickened by the fact that he somehow won the election in 2018, nor is she or he upset that the Great Khan has literally zero interest in the majesty of the parliamentary system and how it functions, and the value of debate and discussion on policy, in parliament. Why? Because, of course, Trumpism! But we are dismissive of this kind of populism at great peril to democracy and democratic values. In the Arizona state legislature, House Bill 2720 was introduced seeking to enable the state’s elected representatives to cancel the presidential election for that state. The disintegration of the way conventional democrats think things should be is a worldwide, global phenomenon. Not only did the sky not fall – but none of the audio leaks of the last few weeks, none of the speculation, and none of the anticipation delivered any obvious changes. A new DG ISI, at long last, has taken command at Aabpara. The current regime, built on the civilian-military-intelligence triumvirate has already graduated sans collapse. At the 3rd Annual Asma Jahangir Conference – a remarkable and impressive legacy event that has generated exactly what it is supposed to – the fiery speeches and rhetoric was hopeful and, for many Pakistani democrats, quite exciting.
The tapes and the leaks seem to be feeding on a different supply chain than the PTI’s parliamentary lifeline. Maybe conventional would have folded by now. Humpty Dumpty was broken and could never be put together again. The breathless post Notification Gate commentary has been, for lack of a better word, embarrassing. PM Khan has been anything but conventional. Perhaps this confidence is its own virtue, and perhaps this virtue is a liability for a country that could really use good, conventional leadership right now. There’s just this one thing: Imran Khan ‘didn’t ask’. For now at least, ‘parliament’ thinks he’s fine. As a slew of bills were passed in parliament, I imagined how PM Khan may have processed the entire scene. To be truly nervous he would have needed to take the exercise seriously enough to believe that the sanctity of the democratic process matters. Nicholson, deadpan: “I didn’t ask”.Īt last week’s “parliamentary” joint session of the upper and lower houses, Prime Minister Imran Khan may have been nervous. A companion assures Jack Nicholson’s The Joker of how he looks: “…you look fine,” she says. One of the coolest one-liners in any Hollywood film is from Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman.