Daily Times

The federal cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif on Monday came out with a number of decisions that to some extent might appease the angered public. Partially this anger began with the unprecedented step of the power management and distribution authorities sending inflated bills to millions of consumers that not only sparked protests across the country but eventually forced the government to announce correction and readjustment in the upcoming bills. Now the cabinet has announced a complete audit of the overbilling by three reputable companies. Furthermore, the government has decided to lift the ban on recruitments in government departments. The ban was imposed last year after the PML-N government came to power and also ordered to assess all the recruitments done in the last five years during the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) era. Meanwhile the preliminary report presented by the Adviser to the PM on Water and Energy Dr Mussadiq Malik mentioned that the power distribution companies face immense shortage of staff and do not have sufficient people to carry out meter readings, therefore DISCOs possibly resorted to amounts based on estimates, causing the overbilling. The PM has ordered the immediate filling of those vacancies. He has also announced to give legal cover to the minimum wage of Rs 12,000. For the flood affectees he has announced Rs 25,000 compensation to each affected family before Eidul Azha, half to be paid by the provincial governments. However, keeping in mind the track record of our governments in fulfilling such promised compensation, one can only hope that the incumbent government, unlike in the past, will ensure prompt payment.

Populist gestures such as these might help the PML-N government to refurbish its tarnished image, tainted by accusations of being insensitive to the plight of the people. Though the ongoing sit-ins in the capital under Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri have inflicted severe damage to the economy, the veracity of the concerns and debates that have grown out of them cannot be denied and have pushed the government onto the back foot. People are now attentive to every move of the government and respond to any injustice spontaneously. It is therefore in the interests of the government to not only be sensitive to people’s concerns but also carry out its promises promptly and to the fullest extent. *