Pakistan is going through one of the toughest phases of its
history. While we have hostile governments across the border, we are under
serious trouble internally as well. As Pakistan’s armed forces take on the
terrorists hiding in the tribal badlands of the country, the 1,200,000
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) pose even a bigger challenge on multiple
fronts.
At such a critical juncture, when the entire world has its
eyes focused upon us, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Imran Khan and
Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) leader Dr. Tahirul Qadri have decided to bring
down the Federal government of the country. With only a few thousand people,
who are holding a sit-in outside Parliament House in Islamabad currently, the
two leaders, want to bring the government on its knees and Prime Minister to
resign.
While this political turmoil has affected our economy, it
has become a stain on Pakistan’s face in the eyes of international media. The
way international media has portrayed the situation during last few days,
Pakistan’s image has been tarnished badly across the globe.
Although international media gave complete coverage to the
marches yet the marching leaders have not left a positive outlook of themselves
outside Pakistan.
On August 4, 2014 The National reported an op-ed regarding
the political situation of Pakistan. The writer highlighted the similarities
between the current movement and the 1977 anti-Bhutto rallies that had finally
led to imposition of Martial Law in Pakistan.
Later, when Imran Khan announced to start Civil Disobedience
Movement in order to hurt the Government of Pakistan, Livemint took Imran’s
announcement extremely negatively and reported that Imran Khan’s solo flight
would only lead him to disappointment.
The Economist was highly critical of Imran Khan and Dr.
Tahirul Qadri for their march on the federal capital. It went as far as saying
“In the past, “long marches” like Mr Khan’s—in reality, slow-moving
convoys—have played a role in destabilizing and eventually killing off
governments”.
It is pertinent to mention here that the same Economist
article was published in Canada by The Chronicle Herald in Canada, the country
of which Tahirul Qadri has the nationality of.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the government were praised
by The Guardian in its report regarding Imran and Qadri’s march over the Red
Zone. It mentioned that Nawaz Sharif knew that he would look weak, still he
abstained from bloodshed.
Odisha Sun Times said that Imran and Qadri only wanted
Sharif’s head for pursuing their personal agendas.
Link: http://odishasuntimes.com/81598/pak-political-stalemate-continues-khan-qadri-want-sharifs-head/
A blatant critique on Imran Khan’s politics was published in
Financial Times titled as ‘Imran Khan, Pakistan’s playboy turned politician’
In a blog on Yahoo.com, published in
Romanian language, Imran Khan was termed as ‘playboy-ul din’
Link: https://ro.stiri.yahoo.com/imran-khan-playboy-ul-din-pakistan-care-vrea-010143499.html
It is heart shattering to mention that
Pakistan had to face serious embarrassment on the global surface as Financial
Times made it a lead story on its Asia page that Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri
were summoned by Army Chief of the country.
Link: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5f245846-2f37-11e4-a054-00144feabdc0.html
The image of Pakistan across the world
got tarnished by news and rumours that circulated in the international media.
It is obvious that when authentic news websites across the world report that
the protesters have announced not to hold talks with the government or that
“Qadri protesters guard access to Pakistan Parliament”; the investors would
surely have lost their confidence in Pakistan’s economy.
Looking at the reports below, it is
obvious that Pakistan had to face some serious embarrassment in the
international media due to these protests:
Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-28863316
Pakistani armed forces and security agencies were also
maligned in the international media. We all know how our security agencies are
portrayed negatively by the international media. The recent protests gave them
another reason to malign Pakistan’s premier spy agency ISI. Dr. Qadri and Imran
Khan were alleged of being ISI’s pawns in the international media.
Clashes between the government and opposition parties in
Gujranwala were also reported internationally.
Mentioning the recent PEW Research Poll,
Washington Post concluded that the recent protests have failed. It went on to
say that the research poll has proved that the protests did not reflect the
common man’s thinking in Pakistan. Exact words were: “Yet an extensive new
survey of public sentiment in Pakistan reveals that the ongoing demonstrations
are hardly reflective of the views of most Pakistanis.”
Wall Street Journal also suspected military’s role in the
current turmoil. It said: “Mr. Sharif had promised to pursue a peace deal with
India, which could have ended a fierce nuclear-armed rivalry in the region and
told Kabul he would end Pakistan's interference in Afghanistan.”
In light of the reports, op-ed and articles cited above, it
can be concluded that the recent protests have seriously tarnished Pakistan’s
image across the globe and our economy ratings may fall even further if the
current political crisis does not get resolved politically.
It must be mentioned here that Moody’s
has already warned against political instability in the country. We must
resolve our problems as early as possible.
