Prime Minister Imran Khan is not the first Pakistani leader in search of a quick-fix. The admiration he expressed for China’s progress, expressed to a group of Chinese journalists on the occasion of the centenary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, indicates that he may not have fully understood the reasons for the rise of China to the position where it is increasingly being seen as the next superpower. Perhaps he has still not fully understood that the CPC achieved certain precise targets before it moved to the next stage of economic and industrial development.
The first thing achieved was food security, which was no mean feat for a country with such a huge population. This also fed into providing the population, still mostly rural, with prosperity and prospects. This was naturally linked to the second prerequisite, poverty alleviation, which also involved heavy investments in education and healthcare. Then, there was a very firm commitment to establishing order. This was applicable to all crime, not just the corruption that Mr Khan picked on. Apart from the absence of these prerequisites, Mr Khan, in wishing to import the Chinese model, should have noticed that democracy, the system he has speculated about replacing, has not had a fair run in Pakistan. Mr Khan’s own regime has not got the best of records in the protection of basic freedoms, such as that of speech, particularly of criticising the government or any of its components.
Most problematic has been the PTI’s failure to show itself as a force for social transformation that the CPC has been. Most tellingly, it has not shown the ability, or even the willingness, to put in the kind of disciplined hard work that the CPC did, so as to achieve the prerequisites of prosperity and progress. Flying off after the latest model, without being ready to put in the sheer hard work needed, and paying the necessary attention to detail, will not deliver prosperity to Pakistan. Rather than look to others’ success stories, even if it is that of a friendly neighbour like Pakistan, Mr Khan would do better to concentrate on the mundane problems that confront him. Solving them properly will bring the desired result.
