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Bani Gala

Faustian Bargain

From the word go, Prime Minister Imran Khan was ill-prepared to lead the country towards a better future and his tenure has been high on rhetoric and low on performance and action.

By Ali Hassan Bangwar | February 2022

With the current political setup reaching its end and general elections nearly a year ahead, there has been increasing debate on the performance assessment and estimations of the PTI-led government. There has been a comparative appraisal as to what extent long-held election promises have been realised and delivered on.

How far the current government remained successful in unleashing the so-called ‘Tsunami of Change’ and building the “New Pakistan”. Before delving deep into the performance estimates and indicators, it’s pertinent to recall the promises and rhetoric that formed the basis of Khan’s electoral agenda.

From building an Islamic welfare state in line with Riyasat-e-Madina to creating the much-touted 10 million jobs and from fixing the state’s tarnished international image to putting the national economy back on the track, the PTI government is running short on its lofty promises and rhetoric. In other words, the government is facing the problems of its own making: exaggerated rhetoric and promises sans considerable and practical performance.

Khan’s government is failing to augur well in the core areas of performance mainly because of the impotence and the inherent governmental weaknesses. However, geo-strategic and historical forces along with COVID-19 disaster too have been in play and obstructed the actualisation of Imran Khan’s dreams and promises made to the masses.

Novice statesman and a sports legend, Imran Khan, by all means and measure, failed to do well in governance. The incumbent government’s poor performance in almost all areas of national interests manifests this stark reality. Rhetoric outweighs and outpaces almost all the performance indicators including the Human Development Index (HDI). Khan’s tenure is soon approaching its end and nobody is clueless about the outcomes of his long-touted 100 days panacea to all ills facing the country.

Making it into the power on the promise of change, his tenure is proving to be a mere change of political guards without any remarkable change for the better. Critics and opponents have time and again dubbed his government as sponsored and an outcome of Faustian bargain with the power brokers, an acquisition Khan and his party repeatedly deny.

The heightened hopes and expectations that Khan had raised in the frustrated and fatigued masses have been fast transforming into despair. The absence of, or non-Implementation of his pro people policies have been generating disconnect, discontent and disquiet among the masses. Contrary to his promises, the current political setup appears incapable, if not unwilling, of navigating the country out of growing unemployment, surging socio-economic divide, ever increasing public frustrations and the mounting inflation. The defeat in the local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is but a single manifestation of the mounting discontent among the people against the performance and delivery of the incumbent government.


The dream of establishing a welfare state in line with the Riyasat-e-Madina appears a far cry. Though various social safety projects including Ehsaas programme have been launched by the government, their outcomes do not appear to be promising either due to their lack of their implementation at the earnest or the ossified corruption in the officialdom and bureaucracy. The funds allocated to various projects fail to benefit the targeted audience. The poverty still looms large, perhaps in a more horrifying manner, which is further added by skyrocketing inflationary trends.

The plight of the underprivileged and destitute section that comprises nearly half of the country’s population is worsening over time. Moreover, black-marketing, profiteering and opportunistic hunt and manipulated price hike are but the new normal. The government failed to establish writ and enforce assigned prices. The artificial shortage of fertilisers and their sale at exorbitant prices by the patronised mafias is a case in point.

As far as his slogan of accountability is concerned, it has been turned into a controversial and politicised gamble. Many analysts and experts assume the accountability process as the subjugation of political opponents and of those who enjoy no stake in the ruling government. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), for instance, has been widely censured for its ruling party’s sponsored and patronised accountability manoeuvres. Due to this partial accountability, the corrupt elite and aristocratic members of the government remained almost untouched.

Moreover, the vast majority of the people in various surveys have voiced dissatisfaction on the nature and intent of accountability and anti-corruption drive of the federal government. Rather than alleviating corruption, various reports suggest that it has been further tightening its tentacles also in the existing political setting. In the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index released in January 2021, Pakistan slipped four points down, ranking 124 out of a total 180 reported countries. Moreover, though not new, the police and Judiciary have been found to be the most corrupt institutions of the country in the National Corruption Survey 2021 carried out by the Transparency International Pakistan.

Pakistan’s economy in the current government has shown poor performance. Fuelled by the Covid-19 pandemic and myopically framed economic policies, the economy has suffered negative trends and trajectories to the extent of bankruptcy. The frequent bail-out packages from Saudi Arabia and dictated packages from the IMF have remained the impetus to keep the sinking economy afloat.

The PTI government, led by Prime Minister Imran Khan, like its preceding political setups has desperately failed to deliver. It’s exaggerated rhetoric, populist promises and the slogan of change almost ended in smoke. The government’s dismal performance is going to cost it dearly in the forthcoming general election.

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