The Imran Khan government in Pakistan had assumed power in August 2018. The going has been pretty tough and full of political frustration for the ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
New Delhi: Smarting from the defeat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's local body elections, on Saturday, December 25, Khan restructured his party organisation.
Now, Defence Minister Pervez Khattak has been made chief of the PTI party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri has been made the new leader in politically crucial Balochistan.
For another key political region in Pakistan, the Sindh, Imran Khan has nominated Minister for Maritime Affairs, Ali Zaidi, as the party's local unit president. Zaidi tweeted to say he was "humbled by the faith" that the leader had shown in him.
"Will try to live up to the expectations of all, especially PTI workers. Together we will pull Sindh out of deprivation," he tweeted.
Fahd Husain, Resident Editor of 'Dawn' daily, says: "It has been downhill from the day that Prime Minister Imran Khan took the oath of office in August of 2018. That was the highest point for the PTI. Each year since then has weakened the government's performance, diluted its credibility and undercut its viability as a party that is fit to rule." He further says, "If it somehow survives in office in 2022, it would do so as a weakened shell of its original self."
Prime Minister Imran Khan had earlier acknowledged that the wrong selection of candidates had led to the party's defeat in its stronghold of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He also said that dynastic politics must be discouraged.
The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) has managed to win the highest number of mayor/chairman seats in the keenly fought elections for 39 tehsils of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa held on December 19.
As the year ends, Imran Khan's party is in worse shape than when 2021 had dawned. "It is now struggling to stay afloat in a sea of mounting troubles…," says the commentary in 'Dawn'.
It can be stated from an Indian perspective that time has dulled Pakistan's memory in more ways than one. Thus, notwithstanding the claim of enforcing principles of 'Naya Pakistan' – as claimed by Imran Khan-Islamabad has not yet given up the old habits of trying to thrive in propaganda.
It has been three years between Imran Khan's regime in Pakistan and the Narendra Modi-led dispensation in India. The biggest tussle and battle of nerves between Modi and Imran came in February 2019. India retaliated Pulwama terror attack by bombing some terror hideouts.
Of course, Imran Khan's tenure would also go down the memory lane in Pakistan that saw abrogation of Article 370 by the Modi government, and it could do nothing much about it.
During the tenure of PM Imran, on another occasion, Pakistan got it on its nose was at The Hague. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on July 17, 2019, by 15-1 verdict, held Kulbhushan Jadhav's conviction by Pakistan wrong. The year 2021 was especially harsh on Imran's party, says Dawn's Fahd Husain.
He says, Tthough the scourge of inflation has dogged it since previous years, it was this year that it really cut deep into household budgets. Not all of it was the government's doing — Covid supply issues creating mayhem across the globe — but much of it was. And is. The inability of the (Imran) government to manage the supply side of essential commodities, and the bumbling way in which it tackled macroeconomic policies, fed into the monster of inflation.
