In the words of the American author, Pierce Brown, “liars make the best promises”. These words are exceptionally true for the far-fetched and deliberately misleading promises that the current regime seems to specialise in. Visibly unattainable promises, such as providing ten million jobs and five million houses by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) appear to be ‘innocent little lies’ when compared to announcements of discovering “jackpots” of natural resources that will end all the economic woes of the country.
The latest ‘miracle discovery’ of oil and gas was announced by none other than the prime minister himself, who said that his regime may have discovered Asia’s largest oil and gas reserves within Pakistani territory. The petroleum minister reconfirmed that a ‘treasure’ of oil and gas may have been found inside Pakistan.
Experts have rubbished these claims, saying it is too early for anyone to even think about making such a declaration. The minimum drilling depth, even to start expecting anything, has not been achieved so far. Previous PTI claims like this one, have also been regularly ridiculed by experts, but this does not prevent the government from trying to send Pakistanis to the fool’s paradise full of oil and gas.
Authorities at the petroleum division cannot make any sense of why the government keeps on creating these false illusions of hitting oil and gas reserves at such preliminary stages when it is not even scientifically possible to make such claims. Government based experts are left to dodge media enquiries to save themselves from inevitable embarrassment.
The people of Pakistan need to understand that the bitter truth is always better than the sweetest lie. The truth is that many previous governments have tried to find oil and gas reserves in Pakistan, but failed. There have been times when good indications were observed during the drilling process in the past. Never, in the history of Pakistan, were these initial ‘discoveries’ publicised so shamelessly, as it is being done now.
Before elections, PTI leaders had claimed that Prime Minister Imran Khan will bring back 200 billion dollars from abroad on the very day he takes oath. It was claimed that Imran Khan would throw half of that amount on the face of the world to pay off all of Pakistan’s debt.
The government needs to stop trying to fool all the people all the time, and admit they did not have a real economic plan for the country when they were brought to power. It may not be too late to make a real economic strategy that does not depend on miracle discoveries. g