AS back as the man in London was in power, our economy, though was not of the standard to be proud of, yet had recorded a remarkable boost. As testimony, our foreign exchange reserves had reached the record level, our stock exchange touched highest ever hundred index every closing day and thus was regarded the best in Asia, the international financial institutions got satisfied with the pace of our economic growth and hence kept all the time ready for extending to us whatever economic assistance we did need and, most eminently, prices of the essential commodities, for the first time, reflected downward trend. Of course, these were the indicators enough to envisage that the land was on track to economic development. What however happened next was unfortunately Imran Khan in power, whose tsunami badly hit the land. His tsunami brand politics, whether demonstrated
in the container or in the Islamabad’s PM House or in the Peshawar’s CM House or in the Lahore’s Zaman Park or in the highest judiciary or elsewhere, did with this land what the natural tsunami could have never done. To be true, it wrought havoc with our economy, with our exchequer, with our institutions, with our judiciary, with our political culture and eminently, with the ethics of our youths which, however, is as necessary as nothing else in the society like ours where ethos and social values always matter. The economy too, by taking downturn, eventually reached the current stage with the clouds of desperation seen hovering over us.
We are nevertheless now looking for how to backtrack the land to that very position which, however, is a daunting task and, for it, is required a statesman of the extraordinary calibre, competence and wisdom. If we go on twirling the glance over the existing lot of the mainstream politicians, we don’t find any of such quality except the one who had, in fact, jacked up the economy to that extent and is now in London. Yes, in London but is scheduled to get back on 21st next.
And yes, that man is really man of the crisis for having an incredible record as a statesman in his credit. He has been premier of the land, not once but thrice, and, in that capacity, has got a lot of feathers in his cap, not for himself but for the land and its dwellers. To count a few, through the economic policies meticulously devised and implemented, he boosted the economy to an extent worth praising. He is a visionary man and has the ability to convert a vision into reality. For instance, he had the vision to have modern communication infrastructure in the land and now we see network of motorways, expressways and highways spread through its breadth and length with common man benefiting from.
Our traditional adversary India carried out five underground tests in 1998 and thus created security concern for us. Consensus prevailed in the national opinion for the matching response. However, enormous pressure was there from the US with a charming package of incentives offered not to follow the suit. This man, however, didn’t succumb to the pressure and exploded six nuclear detonations.
Militancy and energy crisis, both in their peak, were the two chronic issues this man did inherit. Militancy though was branded as international issue yet concentrated on our soil that brought catastrophe in our land. None of the governments before him had serious efforts to root out this menace. This man, however, launched operations in North Waziristan and Karachi with special measures adopted in Balochistan and the result was peace restored in the land. Similarly, energy crisis, that had assumed an alarming proportion, had jammed the industry at all with the economic recession in consequence. Again, it was this man that launched short and long term energy projects and unbelievably overcame the crisis during his that very tenure, a task almost inconceivable in nature.
The ancient and historic Lahore city is fortunate enough to be metropolis of the province where brother of this man stood chief minister for two consecutive tenures. He too utilised his vision and embraced the city with all modern urban infrastructure like bridges, over-bridges, under passes, flyovers, international stand metro bus and metro train shuttling across the city. And other major cities of the province too were planned to be provided with similar facilities. In short, the ancient Lahore city is now doubted to be a city of an advanced country and its comparison with rest of the metropolis is just as to compare Istanbul with Kabul.
On diplomatic front too, this man had no less achievements. Save Israel and India, amongst the global communities, there hardly had been a country, whether a global or regional power or simply a country of eminence, the bilateral relations with whom weren’t converted into cordiality. Even India, our traditional adversary, wasn’t spared from the hectic efforts this man did put in for normalising relations with and the response was a positive gesture in the shape of the then Indian premier Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s all of a sudden and surprising visit to Lahore.
Amongst the brotherly Muslim countries, Saudi Arabia and Turkey were what this man had forged with special relations. Saudi Arabia, for the same reason, always came up with generous financial support to us during whatever crisis we did come across and thus proved to be the friend in need. And, with our all weather tested friend China, this man struck a historic China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) deal. This game changer project manifested to spread network of modern communication infrastructure and to launch industrial and energy producing units with millions of jobs to be created for the youth in the land. The Project that commenced in his very tenure continued with full pace till Khan came to power, who however stopped, or at least slowed down its pace during his tenure.
All what stated above lead one to the conclusion that the man scheduled to be here with us soon is indeed an iron-man who, by utilising his wisdom and Herculean efforts, has the competence to accomplish whatever difficult task he is entrusted with, as has demonstrated in the past. Surely, he would have his homework done by now for, in the first instance, to bring the land out of the current economic crunch and, then, to take it beyond as much as possible. Thus, this is tiger essentially deserves to be given a rousing welcome, not for being a political leader but for being saviour of this land.
—The writer is a retired civil servant and freelance contributor based in Swat.
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