The first thing to be done after the ouster of Imran Khan and the PTI government is to elect a new PM, which the National Assembly will proceed to do later on today. After that PM has taken oath and formed a government, it has a task that will involve maintaining a balance within the coalition that ousted Imran. That government will naturally have to tackle the challenges that have been left behind by its predecessor, with the foremost being the economy. While there are other contentious issues in the PTI legacy, economic mismanagement was the final straw in the government’s coffin.
The incoming government will presumably now find true figures about the state of the economy, rather than the massaged figures the PTI used to tell the world what fine fellows they were. The current account deficit and the trade balance are of immediate concern, while inflation and the negotiations with the IMF must also be priorities. Perhaps the most difficult decision the new government will face is what to do about the populist subsidies announced by the government recently. The IMF doesn’t like them, and broke off talks because of them. Yet rolling them back only gives the PTI, now in the opposition, a talking point.
Another talking point will be the foreign conspiracy claim. The new government will be defensive about this, but that domestic political compulsion should not stop it from repairing, as a priority, the damage done to Pakistan’s foreign relations, and that diplomats abroad who host diplomats will not be willing to speak with them frankly because of the fear that Pakistan’s home government might use their words, probably twisted, for domestic political ends. The incoming government will have to tread a line between subservience and offensiveness.
Perhaps the most contentious issue for the incoming government is how to reduce the heightened polarization in society, which the PTI has encouraged by numerous examples of bad and intolerant behaviour, but is not alone to blame for this, though as the government it should have resisted it instead of just going with the flow. One of the most important things to do is to avoid the sort of revenge persecution that a new government is supposed to do to settle scores. The incoming government needs to be extra-cautious because it wants early elections, during which rhetoric will be naturally heightened. It must ensure that the baseline is not positioned high to start with.
