Imran Khan and his die-hard supporters may believe that there is a global conspiracy against him but the reason for the collapse of his government in less than 4 years has all to do with his own failings.
As Fahd Hussain, commentator and Dawn journalist recently wrote, the epitaph of Khan lies in the following:
First, Imran Khan mismanaged the establishment: “PTI’s path to power was red-carpeted by the establishment without much care for nuance or subtlety. Imran Khan began his stint as the prime minister with one hundred per cent support from the establishment, a luxury few leaders had enjoyed before. And yet, event by event, issue by issue, and policy by policy, the PTI leadership began to rack up completely avoidable irritants with the establishment that finally exploded into the open with the controversy over the appointment of the DG ISI.”
Second, Imran Khan’s arrogance prevented a working relationship with the opposition: “A basic working relationship with the opposition would have kept the political temperature down and enabled a smoother running of the affairs of the state. This would have also helped the government focus more on delivery as its primary agenda.”
Third, the Buzdar blunder: “The Buzdar blunder was an avoidable one. When it was not avoided, it became one of the leading factors for the PTI’s failure. The fact that PM Khan finally threw Buzdar under the bus at the last moment for his political survival, made the blunder look even worse.”
Fourth, Imran Khan’s team: “The gap between what the PTI promised and the people it selected to deliver on the promises was wider than anyone could have imagined. The PTI’s cabinet team was probably the weakest in living memory — and this explains why the PM had to reshuffle it so often.”
Finally, was PTI’s Hubris and arrogance: “Arrogance is a trait no one likes in a person, but when it becomes second nature to a political party, it turns off entire segments of society. When you combine this arrogance and hubris with the power that a government wields, you get a deadly combination.”
Hussain concludes by asking a rhetorical question: Whether it is within the PTI’s capacity to “learn from its mistakes and correct them?”
