Daily Times

You would have to look really hard to find a government that is just unable to get the right team together even after spending about two and a half years in office. The latest reshuffling in Punjab is hardly a confidence inspiring exercise. And not many people seem to notice, though it ought to baffle onlookers, that this has become a government where special advisors rejected at the provincial level find positions close to the prime minister at the federal level while those chucked from the centre are soon seen anchored in provincial cabinets. One can only assume that their dismissals, sometimes very dishonourable discharges, had something to do with their performance. How is it possible, especially for a government that makes such a fuss about accountability, that people whose performance is not up to the mark are readjusted like this? Now who is to blame if the government’s attitude is becoming the butt of all jokes on social media? The situation is made worse because the latest axe apparently came from the prime minister himself. If that is indeed so, what is the role of the provincial government in all this?

This approach is not limited to politicians. The way the civil service has seen transfers of senior officers from here to there over and over again also stands out. It’s not just about an obvious inability to get the right people in the right positions, though that is hardly a small matter in itself, it is also that when you are not certain about your own team how can you implement your projects and policies? The government’s actions have raised a lot of questions. It must not have forgotten, while making these changes once again, that these are very charged times and the opposition will take advantage of such things to expose what it calls the government’s non-seriousness and irresponsibility.

The ruling party clearly needs to get its act together. Its indecisiveness now risks running up a significant political cost if it is not very careful. When people are already burdened with very high prices and in some cases unaffordable staple food, and the government appears clueless about even who to put in the most important offices, they tend not to take its promises at face value anymore. The least it can do is not make matters any worse for itself. *