PAKISTAN
Self-Proclaimed Nationalism Of PTI

Raesa Fatima
AUGUST 25, 2022
OP-ED

“Had better relations with Trump than with Biden,” said Imran Khan in an interview with CNN. What do both Donald Trump and Imran Khan have in common? Since the EU referendum and Donald Trump’s election to the US presidency in 2016, scholars and commentators have spoken of the emergence of a ‘post-truth era’ or post-truth politics, defined as a break-down of ‘rational’ opinion in favour of emotion. Most potent examples of post-truth politics as a style available to individual politicians are instances in which outright lies about things that technically anyone could verify are used – albeit perhaps not always consciously – for various political purposes

towards both adversaries and one’s supporters Ex-prime minister Imran Khan built the narrative of an imported government when he was ousted by a coalition of thirteen parties in April 2022. Let’s dissect how many imported people Imran Khan hired in his cabinet or as his special assistants on various issues versus which people are serving in the same posts in the “imported” government, as Khan likes to call it. Starting with Sania Nishtar, who was SAPM on poverty alleviation and the Chairperson of the Ehsaas Programme, before assuming power in Khan’s government, had co-chaired WHO’s High-Level Commission on Non-communicable diseases along with the Presidents of Uruguay, Finland and Sri-lanka, member of the WEF’s Global Agenda Council on the future of healthcare. She still co-chairs the US Academy of National Sciences, chairs the UN’s International Institute for Global Health’s International Advisory Board, and is a member of the International Advisory Board on Global Health of the German federal government. On the contrary, Shazia Atta Marri is the current federal minister for poverty alleviation. She has served in Pakistan all her life, mainly in Sindh.

The concept of ‘post-truth’ has been criticized for overpowering the long history of marginalization of minority groups from knowledge construction.

Secondly, Hafeez Sheikh in Khan’s government was his finance minister who had served in the World Bank before coming to Pakistan and came only to assume the power of a ministry. Irony! No? Moving forward, PTI had Malik Amin Aslam as the minister of state for the environment. Mr Aslam was also imported from outside Pakistan. He was working at the World Bank and UNO and also the vice-president of IUCN. Sherry Rehman has replaced him, and she has a history of serving in Pakistan representing the Pakistan People’s Party. In a recent development, Jamil Ahmed has assumed the position of governor of the State Bank. He has served in various positions at State Bank all his life, whereas the previous governor, Reza Baqir had been imported from abroad by PTI. He had been serving in various positions at the IMF. Similarly, the ministry of petroleum was held by Nadeem Babar in Khan’s government. He is the CEO of Oman Oil Company and vice-president at Cogen Technologies, Houston. His post has been held by Musaddiq Malik who was the federal minister for water and power in PML-N’s government. Zulfi Bukhari was SAPM on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, and Chairman of Pakistan Tourism Development in the self-proclaimed nationalist government. As most of us know, he is a business tycoon, who owns HPM developers and properties in the UK. Sajid Hussain has replaced him as federal minister of overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development. Turi had previously served as a member of the National Assembly. Furthermore, many other people in Khan’s government were his special assistants i.e. Shahbaz Gill, Tania Aidrus, Moeed Yusuf, Tariq Mahmood ul Hassan, Shehzad Qasim, and Robert Laurent Grenier.

The irony is that all these people have spent their entire lives serving the “west” and go back to the “west” once the next government takes power and Pakistan stops serving their interests. The concept of ‘post-truth’ has been criticized for overpowering the long history of marginalization

of minority groups from knowledge construction. It also risks reproducing a public/private and a rational/emotional binary embedded within the Enlightenment separation of ‘mind’ and ‘body’ that underpinned the European colonial project and served to marginalize women, non-binary people, and minority groups. The contemporary political life in Pakistan and more specifically, the post-truth politics of Imran Khan seems to be on a certain kind of agenda, as explained above. He largely seems to believe that he is the only pious Muslim and links every political debate to religion which further tells that he is not a great believer in inclusivity. He refuses to accept his failure to make laudable changes in three years of his power. He only resorts to religious rhetoric to appeal to the masses, which also sadly excludes the Muslims of Hazara because he felt “blackmailed” by such marginalized communities. It is yet to see what his populist and post-truth rhetoric has for him in the store because the plight of Baloch people affected by floods, and a large number of the population bearing the brunt of inflation cannot suffice just by the hollowness of Khan’s words.

The writer is a staff member of Daily Times and can be reached at raesaf21@gmail.com