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At the time of its creation in 1967, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) quickly became a viable alternative to established political parties, increasingly seen as part of a problematic status quo chaired by the General Ayub Khan. With its charismatic leader and its message of radical social and economic change, the party will win the majority of seats in West Pakistan in the 1970 elections after winning the support of key groups such as workers, peasants, students and professionals urban. .
However, despite all the rhetoric surrounding his victory, it soon became clear that the ruling PPP was a different animal from the party that campaigned against inequality and oppression. The star-eyed socialists and other progressive activists who formed the core of his leadership during his formative years were quickly dismissed once his government formed following the traumatic loss of East Pakistan in 1971. Many eventually left the party had lost its way and became indebted to the very interests it sought to oppose.
The shift from PPP to change and maintaining the status quo should not have been totally unexpected. Despite its undeniable popularity, the party relied, at least partially, on politicians established and established to win votes in Punjab and Sindh, and this dependence has only increased over time. It is understandable that their indispensability at the electoral level has had a considerable influence on policy issues. On the whole, voters inevitably proved to be more important than ideologues sitting outside Parliament.
While Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) begins its tenure in government after winning the 2018 elections, it's easy to see parallels with the events of the 1970s. If PTI is not a PPP and Imran Khan is not Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, which is common to both parties and their leaders, is their seemingly inevitable surrender to political reality, with slogans of hope and change. win votes.
There has been a lot of debate about PTI's reliance on voters – constituency politicians who have the ability to win their seats, regardless of party associations – to ensure victory in the 2018 polls. in fact, a long-standing split within the party among voters, almost all of whom have been admitted to the PTI over the last five years, and an so-called "ideological" wing made up of an older cadre of leaders and activists associated with the party since its inception in 1996.
The PTI leaders who have supported the eligible path to the government have always maintained that presenting established politicians as candidates, even if they have dubious reputations and changing loyalties, is a necessary evil in a system its detractors have always pointed out that one can hardly expect a systemic change from those whose policy has managed to maintain the status quo.
If we look at the composition of the cabinet of Prime Minister Imran Khan, there are many reasons to share the skepticism of these critics. Of its 16 members (excluding five unelected councilors), only three (Asad Umar, Shireen Mazari and Aamir Kiyani) did not hold any ministerial posts or with General Pervez Musharraf (2002-07) nor with the fourth PPP government (2008-13). .
This means that the vast majority of cabinet members have been aligned with other political entities at different times, some of whom – such as Khusro Bakhtiar, Minister of Water Resources, Planning, Development and Reform – Pakistan Muslim League -Nawaz (PMLN) until May 2018. Six other members of the cabinet come from the partners of the coalition of the PTI, probably a disproportionate number given the relatively low presence of these partners in Parliament.
Contrary to what many PTI supporters might have wanted, cabinet portfolios are rarely awarded based on their expertise. This is mainly because the task of formulating and implementing the policy is generally not the responsibility of a minister. It's more about bureaucracy and experts from departmental staff. While it is obviously not painful to have ministers who understand the mandate of their department or who have relevant experience in their duties, much of their job is to lead and supervise public servants working under their authority. the implementation of the government program.
As such, in a context where ministers do not necessarily require subject-specific skills, what are the selection criteria used when training a firm?
Throughout the world, and not only in Pakistan, ministerial positions are often part of a broader system of rewards and favoritism used to strengthen alliances, reimburse loyalty and influence the political environment. In this sense, Imran Khan's choices are predictable.
It is not surprising to find people like Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad (Minister of Railways), Fehmida Mirza (Minister of Interprovincial Coordination) and Ghulam Sarwar Khan (Petroleum Minister) rewarded for their defection / support for PTI. by Shah Mehmood Qureshi (Minister of Foreign Affairs), Fawad Chaudhry (Minister of Information and Broadcasting) and Shafqat Mehmood (Minister of Education) Reason for the Loyalty They Have Showed since Their Arrival in Imran Khan in PTI's long campaign to foil its main rival, the PMLN, before, during and even after the elections.
In rewarding opportunism and loyalty by appointments to the firm, Imran Khan is not much different from his predecessors. And if the past is reflected in the future in the same way, there is no reason to believe that his firm will not grow in the years to come, even if its current size is much smaller than the previous two.
The same logic that seems to have been the basis of cabinet appointments also seems to inform other appointments made by Imran Khan. While the new chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mehmood Khan is a new player in politics, his family has been associated with the PPP in the past. He was also provincial minister of the former PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, without any obvious distinction.
Another example is the selection of Sardar Usman Buzdar as Chief Minister of Punjab. While Imran Khan announced his name as a radical move to bring to power an unknown hinterland politician, Buzdar's father is a tribal leader who remained a member of the Punjab Assembly in the past. He himself was elected as tehsil nazim from Taunsa, his home region, under the Musharraf regime and remained in different parts, including the PMLN. It is equally important to note that he has already faced allegations of corruption and even complicity in murder.
His appointment may therefore have more to do with his strategic value as a politician from southern Punjab, an area that PTI would like to turn into one of its major constituents in the future. It may also be because of his proximity to Jehangir Tareen, one of Imran Khan's most trusted assistants, rather than the insight he might have to heading Pakistan's largest province. Similarly, the rise of Chaudhry Pervez Elahi as a speaker of the Punjab Assembly, the election of Asad Qaiser as President of the National Assembly and the reappointment of Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar as Governor of Punjab were rewards for continued political support cases of the latter two.
Another area in which Imran Khan and PTI have not really differed from their predecessors is the gender parity of the cabinet. With only three female members, the federal cabinet has an extremely asymmetrical ratio. Appointing even more men to other positions, such as governorships and the presidency, means that PTI missed the opportunity to have more women in senior positions. Similarly, religious minorities are not represented in any of the highest levels of the state and the government, and the cabinet continues to be a bastion of wealth and privilege with virtually all ministers from the political and economic elite of the country. country. .
It remains to be seen how the new ministers will behave in the months and years to come, but their background in government, their political, economic and social backgrounds and the motivations behind their appointment do not inspire much trust. At the moment, Naya Pakistan from PTI does not seem very different from what it replaces.
The author is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Lahore Management Sciences (LUMS).
This article was published in the September 2018 issue of the Herald. To learn more, subscribe to the printed Herald.
