The National Security Committee (NSC) saga shows how one political or confusing statement from a government body can haunt future governments for months to come. The NSC is now trying to clarify its previous statement on the theory of there being a foreign conspiracy and is trying to mitigate the damage by minimising its earlier words. The Committee on Friday made its second statement in months, clarifying that there was no foreign conspiracy to topple the Imran Khan-led government.
According to the statement, the NSC examined the “contents of the communication” shared by the ambassador and “reaffirmed the decisions of the last NSC meeting.”
While it is clear that there was no foreign conspiracy—the first meeting did not indicate any such assessment, nor did DGISPR’s press conference or this latest meeting—the narrative that comes next is important. PTI is gearing up for a showdown on the streets which translates into electoral success. Its poor performance and allegations of economic mismanagement will be quickly forgotten by a galvanised support base that looks at the foreign conspiracy narrative as something plausible.
The new allied government and all the political parties within will need to fight this narrative; whether it is through a year’s performance in government (a difficult prospect) or a narrative that will rally their own voters to give them victory over PTI in the next elections. Even if early elections are not on the cards, a year or more is not nearly enough time to both perform in government and chalk out a successful polling strategy.
Will this new NSC statement make a difference to those political factors which have made this conspiracy a cornerstone of their political protest? It does not seem likely that the damage of the March statement will be countered by this new statement but the new government must work with what it has. It must continue to work with the NSC to counter the foreign conspiracy narrative before it escalates into permanent political discourse.
According to the statement, the NSC examined the “contents of the communication” shared by the ambassador and “reaffirmed the decisions of the last NSC meeting.”
While it is clear that there was no foreign conspiracy—the first meeting did not indicate any such assessment, nor did DGISPR’s press conference or this latest meeting—the narrative that comes next is important. PTI is gearing up for a showdown on the streets which translates into electoral success. Its poor performance and allegations of economic mismanagement will be quickly forgotten by a galvanised support base that looks at the foreign conspiracy narrative as something plausible.
The new allied government and all the political parties within will need to fight this narrative; whether it is through a year’s performance in government (a difficult prospect) or a narrative that will rally their own voters to give them victory over PTI in the next elections. Even if early elections are not on the cards, a year or more is not nearly enough time to both perform in government and chalk out a successful polling strategy.
Will this new NSC statement make a difference to those political factors which have made this conspiracy a cornerstone of their political protest? It does not seem likely that the damage of the March statement will be countered by this new statement but the new government must work with what it has. It must continue to work with the NSC to counter the foreign conspiracy narrative before it escalates into permanent political discourse.