A crisis that if not rectified will lead to untold disarray and damage. But sceptical is dangerous. But, from within the system that Imran has demonstrated he is more than willing to work in, there was a dreamy scenario.By arrangement with Dawn. Between the dead option of dreamy and the extant option of scepticism, you have to wish for hard-nosed reality. It could turn out to be a hard-nosed middle ground. Not because there is no crisis, but because the crisis is familiar and the options to emerge from it are well known, more or less reasonably implementable and far from the now-or-never option it has been made out to be.

Holding the others’ feet to the fire and, if that too failed, ascending to the most coveted of civilian offices, the PM-ship, with the winds of promise and hope at his back — the dreamy scenario.While political inertia is still possible, it’s increasingly harder to justify.Hard-nosed reality is about reconciling political rhetoric with electoral and governance realities, and doing just enough to stay ahead of the chasing pack.He hasn’t quite burned down the house yet, but he has set a couple of the rooms on fire and embarked on a project wracked by uncertainty. But what is this utter disaster exactly?Back to handouts or bailouts that every government has managed and that Imran’s will too?A horrible government is what Pakistanis have been programmed to accept, which has left, and may leave, Imran with the ultimate get-into-the-PM Office excuse:Scepticism.The other part that has changed is the court’s willingness to get political.Dreamy is already dead.Imran has several advantages here.It’s a lie.Welcome Prime Minister Khan. Why change what’s already working for them?But the dreamy scenario for Khan, and by extension the rest of us, could have been bolstered by two other changes already in place.You gotta do this — “this” being improvements in the anti-corruption regime, service delivery, whatever — because if you don’t you’ll be exposed as liars and frauds.But perhaps more important, Imran has a formidable PR machine available, partly built up by his party, partly loaned out to him by elements supportive of him. Local governments and the census, as everyone knows, only happened when they did because of the court’s intervention. So, who cares who Imran picks as CM, Speaker or anything else formulaically relevant to democratic delivery and success?All Imran has to do is stay a smidgen ahead of the previous lot in terms of delivery, keep his PR machine amped up to maximum, and ride the crest of popular support to remaining a legitimate contender in the next election.The Khanista just wants to feel better about himself and this land of ours. A crisis to unravel Pakistan.Wilful intransigence in the face of fierce political opposition can quite realistically erode political support and boost opponents.In easy terms, in Opposition, Imran’s greatest promise was to force improvements in the status quo by using his political base as leverage. Success.  

And if not success, the third option: why not Imran?Why-not-Imran, the third original possibility and one of the two surviving options, is probably Imran’s greatest asset.There have been three possible versions of Imran. But Imran chose otherwise. Dreamy in the Khanista sense has never existed.The PML(N)’s mismanagement of the economy has proved only one thing: between the PPP’s road to disaster and the N-League’s, there’s only a question of route, not degree. Ours isn’t a polity of overthrow and revolution and the core of the Khan base is already a beneficiary of a two-tiered system: the somewhat-haves and the really have-nots. What’s the worst he can do? Why not give him a chance? It’s not like the others have worked.The PML(N) or the PPP before it would hardly have been eager to listen.

Hard-nosed reality is about accepting marginal change and staying ahead of the chasing pack. One version is already dead, two possibilities remain — and together the three cover the spectrum from the dreamy to the hard-nosed to the sceptical. Hard-nosed reality is about incremental change backed by a vociferous, over-the-top PR machine. A lie at the heart of Imran’s ascension to power and the smiting down of his predecessor has been that Denmark power cables there is a crisis.Put serious-minded political opposition together with specific demands and stack them on top of public disapproval of political inertia and the court’s activism — and you could have had some momentum for positive change. His compromises, as and when they come, aren’t such a big deal — he is the change, not the people he needs to rely on to assemble the necessary numbers.