akistan Peoples Party was the first among major contenders for power to unveil its manifesto ahead of the polls scheduled for February 8. The most relevant question remains whether the promises made in the manifesto will be fulfilled. Is there a well-thought plan behind the promises or are hollow promises pandering to popular demands?

The people of Pakistan have seen many politicians make lofty promises in their election speeches and manifestos to attract the masses that were later forgotten. Not many voters consider it worth their while to confront their elected officials and hold them accountable for not fulfilling their promises.

This scribe has been tracking the promises made by three political parties - Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan Tehreek-i- Insaf and Pakistan Peoples Party – that have ruled the country at the federal as well as provincial levels. The record is mixed at best. The parties simply ignore some of their promises to the voters. In other cases, the execution is compromised on account of changed circumstances or external resistance so that the nominal redeeming of the pledges results in less good accruing to the masses than was hoped for.

A survey by this scribe in 2018, after the three parties had already had at least a term each in government, showed that no more than 70 percent of the promises made through the manifesto are fulfilled. (See truthtracker.com.pk).

At that time, I also asked several politicians, who had been in the manifesto committees of the three parties about the process of putting together a manifesto. Answers to the question, “Do you work out plans for implementation before making a promise? were shocking. Seeking anonymity, most of them said, the parties gave priority to three or four key issues. I a particular election these could be power, poverty and prices. The rest of the promises were ‘fillers,’ included only to inflate the volume of the document.

Thanks mainly to social media and the efforts of some rights groups, the voters as well as the political parties have started taking the promises and the manifestoes more seriously. The parliamentary forums now resound with debates about ‘broken promises.’

This time around, the PPP appears confident that it has managed to present a manifesto it can implement. Speaking at the 16^th death anniversary of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the PPP chairman, presented the 10 top promises in his party’s election manifesto. Should the next government be able to fulfill these promises, he said, most of the problems faced by the country and its people would stand resolved or mitigated.

The News on Sunday discussed the 10 points with the Senator Taj Haider, an important member of the party’s manifesto committee.

About Bilawal’s promise to double the salaries over the next five years, Haider said, “What we have promised in the manifesto is realisable. We have raised the salaries in Sindh. This is a verifiable fact. Doubling the salaries in five years will not be an issue.”

Talking about the second point, he said that green energy parks will be established at the district level. Low income households will not be harged for up to 300 units of electricity. “We generate 4,500 MW using coal from Sindh. We are providing solar panels to thousands of families in the flood-affected areas in Sindh,” said Haider.

About the third point in Bilawal’s agenda: to ensure the provision of quality education to the people across the country, he said, “We have eliminated the ghost schools in Sindh. We will introduce a state-of-the-art education system across Pakistan with the help of local and international experts and donors.”

About the fourth point, providing free world-class health facilities to the masses, he said, “The PPP is already providing free healthcare through the NICVD, Gambat Hospital, the SIUT and the JPMC. The PPP government has imported and installed the first ever bionic arm in Karachi for the treatment of cancer and heart patients.” The PPP will extend the programme to every district of Pakistan, he added.

He said that under the Apni Zameen, Apna Ghar programme, three million concrete houses will be provided to homeless families across the country. “The PPP government has already constructed nearly 40,000 houses in the flood-affected areas of Sindh and handed them over to those who had lost their homes in flood. Why can we not replicate the effort elsewhere in the country?”

About Youth Card, Kissan Card and Mazdoor Card, Haider said, “Why do you find these promises strange or unrealistic? We already have a successful model in the Benazir Income Support Programme that has been working for poverty alleviation.” He recalled that when the PPP launched the BISP, some people declared it impracticable. However, it was so successful that the PML-N and the PTI governments had continued it.

About the Bhook Mitao promise, he said, “The PPP government in Sindh has managed to convert thousands of acres of barren and saline land in Thatta into cultivable. We can use barrens land in the rest of Pakistan to grow more grains.”

To a question about funds for these programmes, he said, “We have already done these things at the provincial level in Sindh… If we win the elections and form the governments at the federal and provincial levels, the PPP will implement its agenda across Pakistan using indigenous resources.

The writer is a senior journalist, teacher of journalism, writer and analyst. He tweets @BukhariMubasher