Time to Call Pakistan’s Bluff
In the last 20 months of his rule, Prime Minister Imran Khan has not only failed to solve his people’s problems but also has made the life of the common man miserable.
- S.K. Sharma |
- May 05, 2020 |
- IDSA Comments
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In the last 20 months of his rule, Prime Minister Imran Khan has not only failed to solve his people’s problems but also has made the life of the common man miserable.
Humanity is much better equipped today to mitigate the loss in life and collateral economic damage resulting from a pandemic, as demonstrated through the deployment of new-age tools such as artificial intelligence, big data, machine learning, neural networks and internet of things.
It would be advisable to review the proposed offset guidelines keeping in view the feedback from the industry, especially the foreign vendors who carry the primary obligation to execute the offset contract, as also the legacy issues.
Any dichotomy between the individual rights of the people and the powers of the state has to be dealt with through a nuanced approach.
It is the need of the hour that India and the African countries collaborate to control the outbreak of the pandemic and to mitigate its long-term economic impact.
Although initially the Maoists suffered some setbacks due to the lockdown, their indulgence in violent incidents over the past one month indicates that they are exploiting the situation to have an upper hand vis-à-vis security forces.
The prevailing environment has underlined the importance of a balanced market to the oil producers. India has been consistently reiterating the need for oil to be priced responsibly to ensure the stability of the oil market.
The inevitable reprioritisation of the central government’s expenditure in the coming union budgets would affect the resource allocations particularly for big ministries like the MoD, which will be forced to realign their business practices.
The abidance to ceasefire does not mean an end to the conflict, but it surely would work as a confidence-building measure, at least for now, to address the bigger challenge of
coronavirus.
The execution of Bangabandhu’s killer is likely to lift the morale of the pro-liberation forces while weakening that of the anti-liberation groups who were already in disarray.
The COVID-19 crisis would severely impact the four countries at the social, political, economic and humanitarian levels, as these states were already facing multi-vector exigencies at the time of the pandemic’s outbreak.
Pakistan’s efforts to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak may get severely constrained due to the refusal of the ulema and religious leaders to ensure that their followers abide by the rules of the lockdown and social distancing.
While scientists all over the world are working tirelessly to find an antidote to COVID-19, the narratives doing the rounds in Pakistan – pushed and peddled by the Urdu media, accuse them of conspiring to turn this virus into a weapon to not only kill but also to alter the human psyche.
Considering the impending financial crunch due to the Covid-19 pandemic and uncertainty about allocations in the coming years, it is unlikely that the MoD will be able to launch many new procurement programmes under the new DPP any time soon.
Draft DPP 2020 needs to cut out obfuscation, repetitions, and bring out core issues for the consideration of the decision-makers in a concise and clear manner.
The lack of international cooperation and trust deficit to tackle the COVID-19 crisis is stark. The pandemic of fear may deepen an ongoing shift towards increased anarchy reflected in ‘everyone for himself’ and could further energise the process of weakening international institutions and agreements.
As the COVID-19 cases continue to rise, the key priorities for the GCC countries are to contain the spread of the pandemic, maintain the flow of trade across their borders and preserve their economies from adverse impacts.
China is too important for Pakistan’s power elite, given that their stakes are tied firmly to the success of Chinese-funded infrastructure projects. Similarly, China would also need dependable and loyal allies like Pakistan willing to support and disseminate the emerging Chinese narrative on COVID-19.
The political divisions and economic challenges facing the country have complicated the government’s response to the pandemic, putting the population at risk and threatening to undermine the popularity of President Erdogan.
The present crisis is as much of a challenge as an opportunity to infuse financial realism in defence planning and bring about concomitant reforms in the quickest possible timeframe.



