agreed upon the point that the first thing all parties should agree upon; a neutral and professional finance minister.
so from the point of view of economics, and what leverage Pakistan could exercise, the reason the PTI needs to lead the next government is four fold. One, sustainable development, not the debt based spending of PML-N but a progressive tax system, such as on property tax. Second, opening up industries to investment and breaking monopolies. Third, leveraging IK statements to extract long term economic agreements with the Afghans (the Central Asia economic opportunity; it’s not just resource extraction but facilitating trade with Russia for others the way European countries are doing to get around sanctions). Finally fourth, to attract FDI and retain cash in the country through persuasion not force.
Pakistan needs a plan to cut its CAD and pay back $25 billion a year for the next 3 years.
Pakistan needs a plan to live within its means and motivate the public to put their effort into the country. What the PDM government’s rule demonstrated was that none of these parties are brave enough to face the backlash from the electorate, but if a PTI government can get the mandate and cut red tape and attract FDI, the public will know that all the funding won’t be coming from their overstretched pockets alone.
My suggestion to make Bilawal the FM (and have the PML-N sit in opposition), is to the point you make that Pakistani parties need to work together. Bilawal and the PPP have many contacts in the liberal circles in the west. If Pakistan is to rebrand its image, abroad, Bilawal is mostly a blank slate. He can grow into that role. Domestically his backing can help speed up development in Sindh; such as finishing the motorway between Hyderabad and Sukkur, fixing the worst parts of the railway network, such as near Sukkur where major disasters have happened, and agricultural reforms (Bilawal says his party is the only anti-feudal party). Being in the government, Bilawal can set himself up well, on his own achievements over 5 years to run for the PM spot in 2029. Whatever government comes to power needs to be able to complete the full five years, and be able to hand over power to the next government. That demonstration of stability will be vital to attracting FDI and talent.
Pakistan needs to rebrand to the world, IK’s Sufism and Bilawal’s liberalism can play into this.
Both the PTI and PPP agree on devolving power to the local levels, unlike PMl-N which in their manifesto wants to create about 5 new ministries, such as one for all roads in Pakistan.
So a coalition government could a long way to easing the polarization, but it should not be at the expense of major reforms. The establishment needs to sit down with the PTI and PPP and iron out what reforms PTI wants to make and what reforms they (the establishment and PPP) are willing to sign off on, while at the same time the establishment and PPP need to lay out what foreign policy positions they want the PTI to stay away from and the PTI needs to state what it can agree upon and what it can’t.
Consider many in the mainstream Pakistani media, before the rug was pulled on election night, were indirectly reporting the PTI was closing in on a 2/3 majority, the establishment should seriously allow major economic and political reforms in exchange for the PTI giving up the 2/3 majority (and the perception). PTI needs to then talk about working together, and change the perception of how politics is done. IK does hold the imagination of a large part of the younger population. Without his active help, the establishment will have tens of millions of disaffected youth, and that is not good for long term development or stability.
