Imran Khan’s new sobriquet: King of U-turns

Story by  ATV | Posted by  Aasha Khosa • 2 Years ago
Imran Khan
Imran Khan

 

Aasha Khosa

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has earned the sobriquet of King of U-turns after he recently overruled the decision of an empowered committee headed by his the newly-appointed finance minister of buying sugar, wheat and yarn from India to ease the difficult domestic situation.

Sugar is priced close to Rs 100 a kilo in Pakistan while its Textile industry is passing though an existential crisis due to the non-availability of yarn and cotton. 

His stand that ‘no resumption of trade with India unless Delhi brings back Article 370” has no takers in Pakistan as there is hardly anyone who is supporting his stand. Pakistanis speaking on plethora of You Tube channels have been asking Khan get ask India for Corona vaccines.

Pakistan most respected English newspaper Dawn writes in an editorial of April 4, 2019:

At the moment, this fiasco is casting a cloud of uncertainty over Mr Khan’s leadership skills. As demonstrated by this latest U-turn, communication problems, an inability to make and stick to decisions and poor conflict-resolution skills are becoming the hallmark of this government. The nation deserves to know who is responsible and what action will be taken to avoid such blunders in the future.

Strategic analyst Qamar Cheema said in his Youtube channels with 41,000 asubscribers, that Khan has become known for his U-turns. He questioned Khan for his myopic view of international and bilateral relations.

He said why Imran Khan doesn’t think of Kashmir while Pakistan is already receiving vaccines for rabies and several drugs and material for pharmaceuticals from India.

Cheema said, “A state has to think for a long time and strategically. The state doesn’t think as an individual.” He said Khan’s U-turn should also be seen in the global context where the decision on restoring peace on the Line of control and the decision of an empowered committee to resume trade with India had raised hopes for rapprochement between the two south Asian countries.

He asked Khan what happens if tomorrow India decides not to sell sugar and cotton to Pakistan.

While analysts have slammed Khan for projecting a poor image of his government’s decision-making mechanism, his chosen National security Advisor Moeed Yusuf presented a rather bizarre explanation for Khan rejecting the decision of the ECC of buying sugar and cotton from India.

Moeed told a television channel, “the cabinet rejecting the proposals signifies the strengthening of Institutions in Pakistan.” He explained that Imran Khan wears adifferent hats as Commerce Minister and as Prime Minister. "As a commerce minister he preapred the proposal for buying sugar and yarn from India but as Prime Miniter he rejected the same,' He said. Wehn TV anchor asked a counter question Moeed wriggled out of making a statement saying "I am not a politiians or a bureaucrat to know this."

However, most people have sympathized with the newly appointed finance minister Hamaad Azhar for facing the embarrassment at his hands of his mentor on the first day of his job.  They also warned him to be ready to become a sacrificial goat for Khan’s failure to revive the economy.

Presiding over the meeting of the ECC to considered among other things a proposal from Commerce ministry was Hammad Azhar’s first engagement on his first day of his job.

He took the decision to allow imports of things urgently required in Pakistan to make peoples life easier and faced rejection from the cabinet.

The world over such decisions is always taken with the consent of the political leadership.

Even the most hawkish Pakistani analysts have slammed Imran Khan for his unrealistic stand on Kashmir since there is no way India will reverse its decision of abrogating Article 370.