A 'reactionary' Khan

Faced with a leadership crisis, Pakistan is facing a multitude of problems on the socio-economic and political fronts. All indicators suggest that the way things are moving; there is no sign that there will be recession in the agonies of the people in near future. The issues of governance, corruption, inflation, unemployment, extremism and terrorism are getting acute day-by-day.
All these problems are invariably attributed to the political leadership, which is selfish and self-centered, lacking political commitment and capacity to handle and manage the process of democratisation, development and deterrence against the outlaws who have totally held the nation hostage to their diabolical designs.
On the one hand, the political leadership is inefficient, corrupt, petty-minded, and manipulative and has lost all shreds of credibility and on the other hand it is involved in pettifogging and mudslinging against each other, providing an opportunity to platonic guardians to derail the process of democratization in the country.
Nowadays the name of Imran Khan is hitting the headlines as the saviour of the nation after the political leadership from all parties has failed to deliver. He is being widely supported by the elite of society, especially the youth, frustrated with the current mainstream political leadership.
No doubt Imran Khan, who was sarcastically called "Inqalab Khan" by the leader of the opposition in National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, is national hero and icon. Even those who opposed him admit that he was a great cricketer and is a compassionate philanthropist. It is however his politics and his personal behaviour towards others around him that has led to severe criticism.
Imran Khan is dubbed as an egoist by his critics. According to George Fulton, Imran Khan and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) are interchangeable. Without the former there is no latter. Since the formation of the party, he has failed to make the party anything other than a party for his political aspirations and dreams to be the next prime minister of Pakistan. He has centralised the decision-making in the party where young party cadres have less say in the matter to discuss and debate issues related to party matters.
Critics also say he is victim of political idealism, which has no place in a world where pragmatism produces more positive results. For instance, he talks about cutting foreign aid, cutting public expenditure, taxing the rich and fighting corruption. Undoubtedly, these are noble things but how can he cut foreign aid of almost 20 billion overnight. It can be economically calamitous for the economy which is already on the verge of bankruptcy - foreign debt is almost $57 billion and internal loan is around Rs 13 trillion. His views about increasing the tax-to-GDP ratio from 9 percent to 18 percent are good but how would he achieve the goals of fighting corruption and taxing the rich without the money to invest in the necessary economic and social infrastructure?
On the matters related to foreign policy he shows inexperience and naivety. He has launched a campaign against Pakistan's participation in the war on terror and advocates the withdrawal from the war and supports negotiations with the Taliban when the fact is that Pakistan has so far lost 35,000 lives of innocent people most of them killed in suicide bombing carried out by the Taliban. I think and I am of the firm view that any abrupt withdrawal of Pakistan from the war on terror will create more problems for Pakistan than it offers any solution. Further, if Pakistan withdraws from war on terror, it will face isolation in the international community as the war on terror has been sanctified by the UN. In case of Pakistan's isolation in the global community, there will be more pain for Islamabad.