Daily Times

Speaking to a grand show off ceremony at the Jinnah Convention Centre in the federal capital on Thursday, Prime Minister Imran Khan spoke at length what his government would be doing to eradicate poverty and corruption from the country in the times to come. He cited several schemes and plans instead of presenting what actually the government had done in the first 100 days. He spoke very well mainly about two key challenges the country was facing. Deep rooted corruption, largely by the politicians in opposition, and poverty which is due to the corruption that eats up most of the national resources. He termed corruption as the root cause of widespread poverty in Pakistan.

Money-laundering, no doubt, is a big curse in which the big guns of all sorts are involved. He only talked about the politicians and claimed that the government has identified fake and dubious bank accounts amounting to PKR 375 billion. He claimed to have signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) with 26 countries to probe accounts of Pakistani nationals worth $11 billion. His finance minister Asad Omar has claimed to have been saving one billion USD every month without mentioning the details of it.

The premier also claimed to have registered 6000 FIRs against pilferers involved in massive theft of power. He termed electricity theft a major cause behind the increase in the prices of electricity and causing loss of Rs85 billion every year. Let’s see and wait for the end result.

Akhuwat Foundation, a Non-Government Organisation (NGO), has developed an interest-free model of micro-financing.  It has been given Rs 5 billion to provide loans to poor people on easy instalments. It seems to be a good step if the money is genuinely spent on micro enterprises.

His shout out of his promises was not different from what the Pakistan Tahreek e Insaaf (PTI) had mentioned in their election manifesto that sounded even better than the PTI government’s performance sheet. Contrary to their statements and apparent austerity measures, the government spent millions on the media publicity of their first 100 days ‘achievements’ that has been widely criticised by the opposition and the economic and political analysts.

It is moment to ponder for the PTI government that even their staunch supporters in the media were found joking and criticising the government’s performance in the first 100 days. They were quite harsh and blunt in presenting their disappointment. I am really afraid that only ministers and advisers would be left alone to speaking in favour of the government if the prime minister and his team keep on making the blunders as they have done so far.

Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has termed it ‘100 days — 100 U-turns’ while PML-N has termed it ‘big failure despite of having all support from the state institutions’. Every political party in the opposition has ‘generously’ slammed the government for not coming up to the ‘expectations of the nation’. Strangely, the parties in alliance with the government preferred to stay silent on the government’s performance. It’s good for the future of the allied parties. They would have fewer luggage to carry with them when they have to walk away of the alliance.

The government could present nothing but more promises for the future embedded with disparity statements and the tales of loot by the leading opposition parties. No logical conclusion to briskly decreasing value of rupee against the US dollar and rising inflation that the economic experts gauge it 2.8 per cent now. It would go to more than 10 per cent by the end of the present fiscal year if some strict and rational economic measures are not taken.

While we are living on the promises of friendly countries, the IMF has deferred talks to early next year. So, the sword is still hanging on us. Going to IMF would further increase the burden of taxes on the public, more inflation and price hike, and more miseries for the general public

The better of the first 100 days is that the government has improved, refined and expanded his promises presented in the PTI election manifesto. The worst part is that almost all the ambitious projects could not be converted in to the PC-I, the first project planning document of the Pakistan government. Still they are talking about what they would do in the coming days despite having several cabinet meetings nothing could be kicked off. The present government cannot be given the credit of the on-going state initiatives launched by the previous government. So, the people of the land are rightly curious to know what the PTI government had been cooking in their cabinet meetings.

Having no plans in black and white with clear road map, time-bound schedules and costing shows the poor efficiency of the government. Even the flagship promises such as uplifting 20 million poor living below the poverty-line, and the most talked about projects including the Clean and Green Pakistan and the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami project are still struggling with the PC-I.

Having more than half of the cabinet members served in the previous governments, one cannot denote it to the inexperience of the government but to the immaturity and time spent on irrelevant issues. The government need to be religiously serious in delivering to the general public if they really do not like to be the joking stuff. Funds spent on the social media would only create a bubbled-hype but it would not save the government from the wrath of the people and severe criticism from the political analysts and economic experts.

The Economist magazine has identified five major challenges for Pakistan in it’s a recent edition. They include scarcity of water, terrorism, lack of planning and infrastructure. The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Mian Saqib Nisar has taken up the top most issue, the scarcity of water, and created much needed awareness on it. About 10 billion rupees have been collected through the crowd-funding while Pakistan needs about 1500 billion rupees to construct the Diamir-Bash and Muhmand dams. Still they need to go for serious planning and methodology to raise funds for the new water reservoirs.

The state institutions have played its role against terrorism. FATA has been cleared while army is still engaged in wiping off the facilitators of terrorism in other parts of the country. Our friends and partners need to support the efforts in this regard. Refusing to pay back the expenses would adversely impact the efforts against the terrorism. The US needs to understand and realise the realities.

Paying off the debt of $12 billion is not solved as yet. While we are living on the promises of friendly countries, the IMF has deferred talks to early next year. So, the sword is still hanging on us. Going to IMF would further increase the burden of taxes on the public, more inflation and price hike, and more miseries for the general public. The worst is already here.

The writer is an Islamabad-based policy advocacy, strategic communication and outreach expert. He can be reached at devcom.pakistan@gmail.com. He tweets @EmmayeSyed

Published in Daily Times, December 3^rd 2018.