There is fair chance of IK coming to power in 2023.But as economy is in free fall position,IK will probably not be able to fix it in 5 years.This will take inflammation to extreme level.
Now PMLN,PPP already are known for their incompetency.This will shake people's confidence in secular/partially secular politicians (Showbaz,IK, Bilawal and co)
And people will be focused towards religious political parties (TLP,JUIF and Jamat e Islami) for change in economy.Because obviously that will be only option left for people.
JuIF has probably no chance to come in power in Federal because it is only small regions of KPK centred party.
TLP will become popular because of its hardcore anti India/west/USA narrative.Combine it with its popularity in Punjabi religious population,and KPk people will also be attracted towards it due to alliance of narrative.
So i think PTI is the last barrier for Religious political parties to come to power.
And if PTI failed on economic front,It will be last nail in coffin for secular/partially secular politicians.
@ziaulislam
@jus_chillin
@Sainthood 101
Oh, you think PTI can fix the economy?
That's news to me... They failed miserably in their last Government... What new will they do in 2023?
Besides the fact they have decided to put our relationship with International partners at stake and have a short term vision of winning the election at all costs. The Americans, despite the fact some Pakistanis dislike their past, are still the superpower and our biggest ally in trade. It will be a challenge To make Every partner your enemy And start The pleasing Process after Coming into power.
I think PTI is the only major political party that did not have an economic team and borrowed Finance ministers from other parties. The likes of Hafeez Sheikh and Shaukat Tareen had worked for PPP, and the economic policies of Asad Umar were rated so bad by Imran Khan that he was compelled to resign after 10 months
I think we need National Reconciliation Policy for economic reforms like Shehbaz Sharif had suggested, but Imran Khan was too arrogant to speak to him; if we are ever going to thrive, we need consistency, and for that, we need continuity in policies regardless of which Government is in power. That's the only way forward if we want to improve our economy
Edit: We need economic policies for 5 years, 10 years, 20 years and 50 years with clear goals and ensure every Government adheres to this vision otherwise whether it's PTI or Donkey league it doesn't really matter
I think you make a very good point actually, Imran Khan had some good instincts but he was an extremely arrogant person, he probably had to be given his cricketing history but it didn't bode well in Parliment. His complete blanket refusal to work with PMLN was beyond stupid. He might still have a government today if he didn't decide to play an all or nothing approach and demonize opposition at every turn. He gambled and lost. Now opposition will have their turn. I would not be surprised if IK comes back given his exceptional stubbornness and blanket refusal to work with anyone basically ensuring that if he goes down that government will be paralyzed without him and that is why I despise him. At least he should give opposition a chance of success for the sake of this country. I do expect that this government will be better at economy simply because nobody could have a worse team of ministers than what IK assembled and if IK gives them a chance to succeed without throwing more roadblocks which his rabid supporters will inevitably endorse. No PM can succeed by intentionally alienating every other faction of government and their constituencies and that is by design. I am not a fan of PMLN foreign policy but to me economy is more important because you have no foreign policy without a real economy and PMLN has always been better there. PTI made very questionable economic and infrastructure choices on critical decisions and that is being kind. I think a lot of PTI supporters will have to think long and hard about the fact that things actually were better during PMLN even if it is heretical to say that. PTI says the right things but does the wrong stuff. PMLN is exact opposite, but they are doing the right things even if they say the wrong stuff. The power that PMLN still has is because the things they fixed matter every day, airports, highways, loadshedding, metro. People actually use this stuff and they don't forget it. A lot of youth get sold at jalsa rallies for PTI. But the people who run this country vote PMLN because they know that infrastructure isn't sexy but this country's backbone is its industry and PMLN wins in that no contest.
Implementing land reforms and breaking up the provinces will skyrocket Pakistans economy. Buying cheaper oil from Iran and Russia, reforming the judiciary, and ditching the US dollar for trade is also a must.
Just need someone with the political will and power to do that. If Khan comes back with a strong majority then I hope that this is on their agenda.
I can see fragments of my opinion on this matter in the above posts, which I will crystalize below.
First of all, I think this thread is important and is THE question Pakistanis need to ask. IMHO conspiracy, corruption, selected, imported, are all truck ki batti. Seriously.
Pakistan's economic troubles are easy to diagnose and very difficult to do anything about. The problem is that the politicians, government, judiciary, military leadership, bureaucracy, are all made up of the top richest 1% of Pakistan. Their interest is staying in the top richest 1% of Pakistan. Unfortunately for 99% of Pakistan, they can do this easily by ripping off the 99%. The core issue is that the rich refuse to give their fair share to Pakistan while the poor give way more than their fair share and are progressively giving more and more to the state. Let me give examples of this.
The state needs revenue right? Let's say it has two options:
1. Impose property tax on anything bigger than 20 Marla.
2. Increase petrol prices.
Which do you think the state does? We all know it does 2 even though the RIGHT thing to do is 1. The state cannot do 1 because the state is basically made up of people directly effected by 1. On the flip side increasing petrol prices has little to no effect on the lives of the top 1%.
And IMHO THIS is the core issue of Pakistan.
Now the question asked was can PTI do anything about this?
1. Did PTI do anything about this in the time they were in power? Clearly not. When it came to the "tax the poor, feed the rich" policies PTI was 100% same page with PTI, PPP, Military Dictators. Why? Because PTI is not asmani party made up of average joes. It's made up of the same 1%. IK himself is a rich rich man and regardless of what his fancy claims are, his actions are totally in line with the elite's interests. Sorry to say.
2. Will they be able to do anything differently if they get 2/3 majority? I sincerely doubt that. Why? Because again how exactly are they getting this 2/3 majority? By have 200 average joes in Parliament that'll legislate "Hey tax this filthy rich people's real estate" or 200 influential landlords, sugar-mill owners, business tycoons that'll legislate "increase petrol prices, increase GST".
So I see PTI as just another face of the same retarded coin that is our state. This fighting they do is just WWE. At the end of the day, all of these people are on the same page about keeping the awam poor and extracting them.
So how can things change? I don't know. At some point the state needs to realize that there is nothing left to extract from the awam. Not sure if this will happen without a SriLanka type situation or a very grass-roots political movement (that I've seen zero signs of). Even though I try to be optimistic, I am struggling to remain so. Unfortunately, at this point a miracle is my only hope.
