Tragic hero or self-pitying schmuck — What will it be Mr Khan? As Imran Khan looks to shape his legacy, will the economy give him pause or will he continue to play agitator?
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By Abdullah Niazi
erhaps one of the most fiercely debated scenes in Shakespearian scholarship is the crowning of Henry IV. After being exiled by Richard II, Henry returns with an army of nobles formerly loyal to Richard II and ousts him from power. To make the change of guard seem legitimate in the eyes of the court, Henry makes Richard renounce his throne and hand him the crown publicly and willingly. In response, Richard does hand over the crown but uses the public platform to deliver one of the bard’s most cleverly disguised speeches. In words he abdicates, but between the lines he declares Henry a usurper and an upstart — risking civil war in an already beleaguered Tudor England. When Henry senses the temperature of the room shift because of Richard’s oratory, in a moment of frustration he asks why Richard is behaving so when he has come willing to resign. “My crown I am; but still my griefs are mine: You may my glories and my state depose, But not my griefs; still am I king of those,” responds the erstwhile King. As the scene reaches dramatic crescendo, the audience is forced to ask itself. Who is Richard II? Did he bring his own fate upon him by exiling Henry in the first place out of hubris and hunger for power, or is he the victim of an unwarranted coup? In short, is Richard II a tragic hero, or a self-pitying schmuck? A similar choice faces Prime Minister Imran Khan. The way the cookie is crumbling, his days are numbered. In the aftermath of his reign, will he embody the spirit of the tragic hero, choose to take the higher road for his people, and live to fight another day? Or will he fall to the very real yet very comfortable existence of being an agitator with no care for the economic or social consequences?
Will the economy sway Khan’s response?
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mran Khan has two ways to respond to his ouster. The first is to accept the will of parliament (however dirty the process might have been), and focus on the elections ahead and how he might possibly steer the nation to steadier waters. The second is agitation
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- and that seems to be the route he is choosing. With an openly anti-American stance for the first time in 50 years in Pakistan’s history and talk of international conspiracies Khan seems to be missing one key ingredient - there is nothing more troubling than the economy right now. Perhaps it will be what sways Mr Khan to adopt a less confrontational approach. Afterall, none will (or at the very least should) know the dire straits we are in better than Imran Khan. The news of talks with the International Monetary Fund going all but bust has been overshadowed by the no-confidence vote, but it has not stopped the opposition leaders such as Miftah Ismail from already saying that their first course of action will be negotiating the IMF programme. If that were not enough, fuel prices are also set to soar. Currently, the government has kept prices tightly coiled at Rs150 per liter, providing a heavy subsidy to do so. Prime Minister Imran Khan had reduced oil prices in March. Frozen at the current level for the month of March, the oil prices will continue at this level until June 30. However, with international prices surging the actual price should be somewhere over the Rs 200 per liter mark. As soon as Imran is out of office, the prices are likely to jump and then there will be unrest. At the same time, the dollar has crossed the Rs 184 mark, and is in a race with petrol to see which gets to the Rs 200 mark first. At the same time, Inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has been at its highest level since January 22, driven by a record rise in energy prices and food rates undermining earlier gains. And this is not a problem that is going to go away anytime soon, not even with a change of power at hand. As the finance ministry has pointed out, the global economy is facing three challenges including financial sanctions, commodity prices and supply-chain disruptions due to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. “These challenges have fueled global inflation and downgraded the growth outlook in most countries,” it added in its report for the month of March. The PBS data show that food inflation is still on the higher side in the last nine months;
in urban areas, it shot up by 14.5pc year-on-year in March and 1.8pc month-on-month, whereas the respective growth in prices in rural areas was 15.5pc and 2.3pc.The PBS data show that food inflation is still on the higher side in the last nine months; in urban areas, it shot up to 14.5pc year-on-year in March and 1.8pc monthon-month, whereas the respective growth in prices in rural areas was 15.5pc and 2.3pc. With the political temperature rising and economic chaos to boot, we have a perfect recipe for agitation. It is a feeling on which Imran Khan has played before, and as the recently concluded show of power in Islamabad shows where the Prime Minister claimed to have hold of a letter proving foreign powers were colluding with the opposition to have him removed from office, he can still draw a crowd. When he is out of office, Mr Khan can very easily peddle this narrative among his supporters some more - especially since anti-imperialist sentiment does sell in this country. Armed to the teeth, Mr Khan could very well take to the streets while the melting-pot is hot and throw the country further into chaos. If he has any care for the situation the country is in, for he surely must have the understanding given he is still the nation’s chief executive, he will choose to take the higher road and fight a traditional electoral battle. However, if he is fighting more for his wounded pride than he is for the good of the people, then he will let loose the dogs of war and plunge the country further into the torrid waters already crashing at our shores. n
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