Islamabad, Dec 30: Pakistan was haunted by political uncertainty, economic instability, a deteriorating security situation and troubled relations with neighbours in 2024. But what defined the year were not just these perennial ills but the countryās inability to tackle incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan.Amid political turbulence, Pakistan hosted a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) conclave, which was also attended by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar — the first high-ranking Indian minister in nearly a decade to visit Islamabad amid frosty ties between the two neighbours.
The last Indian foreign minister to visit Pakistan was Sushma Swaraj. She had travelled to Islamabad to attend the ‘Heart of Asia’ conference on Afghanistan in December 2015.
In his address at the SCO event, Jaishankar said, “If friendship has fallen short and good neighbourliness is missing somewhere, there are surely reasons to introspect and causes to address.”
He also said if activities across borders are “characterised” by terrorism, extremism and separatism, they are hardly likely to encourage trade, energy flows and connectivity in parallel.
His remarks were seen as directed towards Pakistan, which has troubled relations with all its neighbours.
If the year began with Iran conducting missile strikes within Pakistan in January, targeting Baloch militants, it ended with Pakistan carrying out airstrikes in Afghanistan, killing at least 46 people, including women and children, according to Afghanistanās Taliban government. Pakistan says the target was militants.
Pakistan witnessed a series of terror attacks, particularly in troubled Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces in 2024, among the toughest years for its security forces.
According to the details shared with Parliament by the interior ministry, 924 people were killed and 2,121 injured in 1,566 terrorism incidents in the first 10 months of the year. At least 573 dead and 1,353 injured belonged to law enforcement agencies, including the army.
On the economic front, Pakistan was on the verge of default in 2022 and only averted it due to the timely intervention by the International Monetary Fund.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif takes credit for pulling the country back from the brink of bankruptcy and turning around the economy.
In 2024 inflation came down to single digits, policy rates reduced from 22.5 to 15 per cent, foreign exchange reserves improved, and the stock market made record gains.
But it was jailed former prime minister Imran Khan who often hogged the headlines.
In the elections in February, independent candidates backed by Khan’s party surprised everyone by winning more than 100 out of the 226 seats in a hung parliament.
And then the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz threw in a surprise, nominating Shehbaz Sharif as the prime ministerial candidate instead of the party supremo and three-time former premier Nawaz Sharif.
As the PML-N and the Pakistan Peoples Party struck a power-sharing deal to form a coalition government led by Shehbaz, Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) decided to sit in the Opposition.
Khan was arrested in August 2023 after his conviction in a case of corruption and has remained behind bars since then.
Contrary to expectations, his popularity swelled in 2024, proving right his words — uttered before he was ousted as PM in 2022 after losing a trust vote in Parliament — that he would be āmore dangerous when out of power.ā
Recently, after his party workers staged a march to Islamabad ā triggering a crackdown on them by the authorities — the former cricketer threatened mass ācivil disobedienceā by his supporters if his major demands were not met.
These include the ārestorationā of the āmandateā he believes he got in the February parliamentary elections to run the country.
His supporters see 2024 as a disaster for electoral politics and democracy, pointing at the āblatant disregardā of popular opinion reflected on the ballots.
Some in power also concede this.
In a recent interview with Dunya News, senior PML-N leader Mian Javed Latif accepted that āwe had lost the electionsā.
Talks began recently between PTI and the government, but few believe that Khanās demand to restore his āstolen mandateā will be met. Consequently, the country could continue to face strong political headwinds in 2025.
With the traditional challenges still intact, the government now faces another: how to tame a ācornered tigerā.