A Year On, Pak Youths Tell if PM Imran Delivered a ‘Naya Pakistan’

As Pakistan PM Imran Khan completes a year in office, young Pakistanis evaluate his year in office.

(Photo: The Quint)

(With inputs from: Umer Bin Ajmal and Ahmed Saeed)

After years of campaigning, Pakistani cricket star and philanthropist Imran Khan’s efforts to bring about a “New Pakistan” culminated in victory.

Having split the Opposition vote to little effect in the previous elections of 2013, in the July 2018 national elections Khan led his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to beat weakened rivals and form a government at the national level, as well as in two of the country’s four provincial assemblies.

His promise for a ‘naya Pakistan’ had the people hopeful of a better world. But the dwindling economy, the lack of jobs and human rights violations are making Pakistanis skeptical.

“Imran Khan is playing the role of a puppet. But still, he never had a policy. He overall failed in running the government. There is no price control. The policies that he spoke about have failed. But because he is handsome and speaks in English well, so it is moving.”

Iftikhar Sheikh, Journalist

According to Gulf News, Imran Khan will address the nation on 18 August 2019 and share his government’s progress report.

In this regard, the PM’s Office has directed all ministries and divisions to submit their respective performance reports.

The report from each department, division and ministry is to highlight five big achievements in the first year of the PTI government. The youth, however, feels that the country has regressed more in the last one year.

“I would say that it is a lot more regressive than expected because he came to power with boisterous promises of fixing the economy, punishing the corrupt. So a lot of things that he did took a U-turn on it, which earned him the nickname, ‘U-turn Khan’. Now the corrupt politicians are in jail, the entire Opposition is in jail and there is a media blackout on most of them. They have been silenced. Along with that, the PTI government has also targeted activists and two lawmakers from the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement. So with all of these people in jail, the country is still regressing.”

Kaukab Tahir, Journalist

With Pakistan's economy in doldrums and abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution emerging as the latest flashpoint, will Imran Khan be able to rise to the occasion and fulfil the promise of a 'naya Pakistan'?