Two years of harm
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ONLY two years into its rule, the current hybrid set-up, with a dubious electoral mandate, has already created massive difficulties. To keep the review fair and wide, I use an analytical lens that I have used previously to judge past set-ups as well: a set-up’s outcomes accrue in the political, economic, security and foreign realms and derive from its policies which in turn are rooted in the merit of its team.
The current dispensation’s worst outcomes are political — worse than those of past civilian set-ups. Electorally, it has attained two-thirds majority through controversial polls and court verdicts and has given extensions to favoured election officials via questionable laws for future polls.
Legislatively, parliament has come to act as a mere rubber stamp for the executive and has passed laws that have made judicial processes a mere rubber stamp as well. Legitimate oppositional processes have been curbed with much of the top leadership of the PTI, BYC and PTM in jail or underground or forced to defect because of biased accountability processes.
Free speech and other rights have also taken a hit via draconian legal changes, resulting in the shocking 17-year jail verdict against plucky rights activists Imaan Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha merely on the basis of tweets.
There have been major follies and failures in all areas.
Even worse, civilian sway is at its lowest ebb since 2002-07; civilians, too, have become mere rubber stamps for other forces. In two years, these acts have turned us into democracy’s ground zero. The setbacks, especially on the judicial front, have put us back politically by decades and it’s hard to plot a path back to even basic democracy anytime soon.
Economically, the current set-up has presided over the highest inflation, unemployment and poverty figures in decades. While no doubt this reflects the follies of past rulers as well, the current government’s own actions have made things much worse.
For instance, it failed to provide any major relief to the masses as it unleashed harsh IMF therapy that merely ensured economic stabilisation. Even with inflation going down, the people continue to struggle.
What is worse is that the decision-makers seem utterly clueless about how to build on stabilisation to achieve durable growth in order to aid recovery. Instead of industrialisation, they are chasing dubious avenues such as crypto, corporate farming, mining and remittances that could, in fact, undermine industrial growth and exports. Reforms in key areas such as the power sector, state units, taxes and tariffs remain anaemic. In fact, steps like the sale of PIA and the new solar policy have evoked criticism.
The security situation has grown worse largely on account of TTP and BLA terrorist attacks — both in terms of the attacks’ frequency and brazenness, which has resulted in significant human casualties. But here too, the state appears clueless.
For instance, major operations, eviction of Afghan refugees, trade and travel bans, etc, have not yielded the desired outcome against the TTP.
In the case of Balochistan, the neglect of the root causes of economic and political exclusion and the crackdown on even peaceful protests is only worsening matters.
On the foreign policy front, superficially, we are in the rare, sweet spot of having strong ties with both superpowers — China and the US. But some discerning analysts believe that ties with China, which offers Pakistan reliability and a clear route to industrialisation, are slowing down while re-lations with the US, which offers fickle ties focused on security quagmires, are growing. This reflects our perennial tragedy as a state unable to capitalise on serious economic avenues and thus keen on getting into security tangles to survive on geostrategic rents.
So, as in the realm of defence, here too we see the footprint of the security state in the lead.
In summary, we see major follies and failures in all areas. In fact, things are at such a point that there are rumours that the main architects of the current set-up would not be opposed to a national government.
But any such dispensation would prove to be another failed experiment, perpetuating political illegitimacy. My initial causal lens says that weak team merit is the cause of bad outcomes. But the root cause of perpetual weakness in team merit in all our set-ups thus far has been prolonged political illegitimacy. Until we can end that, we will remain stuck with misrule.
The writer has a PhD degree in political economy from the University of California, Berkeley, and 25 years of grassroots to senior-level experience across 50 countries.
Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2026
