Hollow claims

Before the 2018 general elections, a narrative was built against the PML-N. People were told that party leaders were involved in massive corruption and wrongdoings. The PTI claimed that after coming to power, it would eradicate corruption within 90 days. Even after more than two years, the party couldn’t bring any change to the country. The performance of the PTI, however, has been dismal. We are witnessing serious shortcomings in governance in almost all departments. The government hasn’t introduced the much-needed reforms in any sector. The partial accountability drive is being carried out to victimise and malign political opponents. In press conferences that are being held almost daily, federal ministers use inappropriate words against the leaders of the opposition parties. At present, every government representative wants to malign the PDM – the 11-party alliance. The ruling party hasn’t made any effort to engage the opposition in constructive dialogue. The PTI is completely silent over the Peshawar BRT and Malam Jabba cases. It is also ignoring the billion tree tsunami and foreign funding cases. On the other hand, shops and houses of the already oppressed people are being demolished under the guise of anti-encroachment drive. Why aren’t the people paying attention to the fact that the house of the PM was regularised through the CDA but the houses of political opponents were razed down? The recently published report by the Transparency International (TI) has categorically established the fact that Pakistan has fell down to the 124th position from the 117th position on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI). The government, however, has conveniently shifted the blame on the previous governments. For the fiscal year 2019-2020, Pakistan had the negative growth rate of 0.40 percent. In two-and-a-half years, the PTI added more than Rs11 trillion to public debt. The government hasn’t started tangible development work to date. The fiscal deficit has shot up to 8.6 percent of GDP, and no viable policies and strategies have been framed so far by the incumbent government to check this freefall downslide.

It is time the sitting government reconsidered the existing policies and strategies and worked for the welfare of the people.

Sajjad Khattak

Attock