Khan’s demands—the dissolution of the national assembly and the announcement of the next general elections—will further create political instability and could also affect the government’s ability to take economic reform measures and critical decisions.
Significantly, the country’s IT exports are rising and has already crossed over $2 billion in the first eight months of the current financial year. In 2021, the Overseas Investor Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) said in its report that the country had the potential of $10 billion in annual IT exports.
Earlier this week, a delegation of the Pakistan tribal leaders, visited the Afghan capital Kabul and held talks with the TTP. The group demanded the rollback of the FATA reforms, “independent status” for northwestern tribal areas, and dismantling of what it says is the “western system and culture” from the region.
The country’s foreign exchange reserves are declining and just enough to cover imports for two months. Last week, authorities announced a ban on over two dozen luxury and other items to save foreign exchange reserves.
Significantly, any peace deal with the TTP, a group responsible for the killings of over ten thousand Pakistani nationals, would require approval from the Pakistani parliament. These demands would also effectively mean undermining the state's existing authority and constitution in the tribal region.
Relatives of hundreds of people across the country, mostly from its restive Balochistan and northwestern FATA region, who were forcibly disappeared alleged by people linked to the country’s security establishment, have long been demanding justice in tracing their people. Successive governments, supposedly under the pressure from the military, have for long avoided taking any concrete measures in this direction.
The report comes amid ongoing peace talks between the TTP and the Pakistan government as the violence has increased since August last year. Earlier attempts of peace talks, mediated by the Afghan Taliban, had failed to produce any significant result. This year alone, the TTP carried out 46 attacks, mostly targeting security forces, and killed 79 people, according to the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies data.
On Friday, when asked about the possibility of importing cheap fuel and wheat from Russia, Pakistan's Foreign Office didn’t rule out the possibility. Khan has constantly accused the Sharif government of not pursuing talks with Russia for fuel.
Since coming to power in April, the Sharif coalition government has been facing two key challenges: first, from a belligerent Imran Khan; second, the country's deteriorating economic situation.
With escalating tension between the government and opposition, political instability is likely to grow in the coming days. Significantly, this will also have implications for the government’s efforts to tackle the worsening economic situation of the country
The late-night crackdown came after a high-powered party meeting chaired by PM Shehbaz Sharif and attended by his elder brother Nawaz Sharif, three-time former prime minister via video link from London. Senior leaders of PML-N, the main ruling party directed the interior minister to do whatever was required to deal with the PTI’s long march.
Addressing a press conference, Imran Khan reiterated on Sunday: "There was a foreign conspiracy against Pakistan from the US. In this regime change, they used locals — the most corrupt people, who were ready to become part of any conspiracy to save their corruption.”
Khan, who was ousted from power in April through a no-confidence motion vote in parliament, has blamed the United States and accused it of the regime change conspiracy because, he claims, of his independent foreign policy. On Friday, he reiterated his claims.
With today’s order from the Election Commission, the position of Chief Minister Hamza Sharif, who was relying on the support of defectors from Khan’s party, appears shaky. The Lahore High Court also issued a notice to Hamza in response to a petition filed by Elahi, challenging his election as the chief minister as “illegal.”
The import ban, though a necessary measure, will also impact the government’s revenue as luxury items are usually taxed heavily. The move was expected, especially when the government has failed to raise funds for its foreign exchange reserves. The talks with the IMF and other bilateral lenders in Gulf have yet to produce results.
In a separate statement, the Afghan Taliban, which had earlier denied the existence of the TTP in the country, released a public statement, confirming talks between the two sides in the capital Kabul
