Is Khan steel-framed?

Dear Prime Minister, as I indicated in my first letter, your style of decision-making and implementation has injected immense sense of despondency in the hearts and minds even of PTI vanguard supporters. Access to your office has considerably shrunken. Bureaucrats and “converts” to the PTI have raised steel-frames around you , and thus blinded you to the real world out there. At the moment, PTI’s political core seems virtually sidelined. Cancer has incapacitated your lifelong comrade Naeemul Haq. Asad Omar, who was literally thrown out of the cabinet allegedly for dragging his feet on the deal with IMF, is back but in a secondary function as the minister for planning. What was Asad Omar’s fault? What was it that Asad Omar failed but Hafeez Shaikh achieved? A $6 billion package that opened the floodgates to hyper-inflation? We are still looking for answers into the ignominious treatment meted out to Asad Omar. Is it a coincidence that Jehanzeb Khan, after serving under Asad as the former FBR chairman, has now been placed at the Planning Commission to fail Asad Omar as Minister for and Special Initiatives? Nemesis of Asad? You sacrificed another cohort Amir Kayani for an astronomical increase in drugs’ prices. He happened to be on top of the ministry when a Court order on adjustment and rationalisation of drugs’ prices was implemented. The decision to allow this raise had already been taken during the PML-N government. If Kayani was culpable why was no case instituted against him? Where is Iftikhar Durrani, another long-time associate, who was among the people who helped shaped PTI narratives on various issues? The circle around you engineered Durrani’s exit on the pretext that he was need to help the party for elections in former FATA districts. Where is he now? Another casualty of the ever-growing “bureaucratisation” of the decision-making is Shehryar Afridi – your long-term associate. You chucked him out for Ejaz Shah for reasons best known to you. Bureaucracy – epitomised by Azam Khan – a known ANP and anti-army man, Arbab Shehzad, whom you plucked out of KP to assist you as Advisor on Establishment Affairs, and Jehanzeb Khan- currently epitomise the bureaucratisation of your governance. Haven’t they emasculated , and thus blunted political decision-making ? Who would you ascribe the wheat flour shortage to? Bureaucrats surrounding you or your party members? If the latter, then where are the veterans? This latest crisis R11; clearly driven by the vested interest and those who have have earlier been in bed with your avowed political opponents – exemplifies the inefficiency and the lack of vision within the key governance echelons, literally led by the bureaucracy. People like Nadeem Afzal Chan, Khusro Bakhtyar, Razzaq Dawood, Nadeem Babar and Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan represent the typical class of political opportunists i.e. the status quo. Your followers still remember your repeated vows to “fight the status quo” but all those who helped shape the PTI narrative for the paradigm shift are all out. Any introspection Mr. Prime Minister? You probably missed Shabbar Zaidi’s outburst against the bureaucrat-loaded taxation system at an interaction with businessmen (January 21). He too faces the daunting task of blunting the the sinister scheming by the bureaucracy. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had failed in insulating himself against the deeply entrenched bureaucratic vested interest and you saw what happened to him. Your case – as of now – does not seem different either. Have your for mere survival unconsciously surrendered power to the bureaucracy? Mr Prime Minister, Sharifs had one Albatros i.e. Fawad Hasan Fawad. You have at least two Albatros’ around you. But there is a fundamental difference; Fawad diligently and served his political masters. The key people around you, however, appear to be pulling down their political boss – digging ever deeper by elbowing hunted out the PTI core. Are you currently not surrounded by lynchpins of the status quo – both bureaucrats and political opportunists? Mistaking an Albatros for a saviour can be fatally damaging and that is what is happening to you and your anti-status quo ideals. The balance at the moment is heavily tilted in favour of the remnants of the colonial bureaucracy. Dear Prime Minister, the bureaucracy has also paralysed your eyes and ears i.e the civilian intelligence outfit called the Intelligence Bureau (IB), an essential element of information, on-ground risk assessments and preemptive strategic forecasting. Your opponents invested in it in the last decade or so. They continue to lead the IB and indirectly serving the interests of all anti-PTI forces. People at large and your party workers have endured an overdose of anti-graft and anti-status quo rhetoric. Contrary to popular expectations, you continue to slide into the hands of the status quo which is having a field day. The only way to remove the prevailing sense of despondency is a call back to the core ideals, not abandoning them.