Governments are usually under the constant watch of media, their performance assessed on a daily basis. The media is obviously concerned with governmental actions and policies that make news.

As this government comes close to completing three years in office, it is perhaps time to critically review its performance and this is what we want to do in today’s Special Report. With one exception though; while it is usually a government’s weak performance that comes under scrutiny, we want to assess the unbridled success of the PML-N government at the centre and in the largest province Punjab. The aim is to ascertain all claims of good governance.

There has been no dearth of crises but it seems the government has been lucky enough to leave them behind, including the disastrous Nandipur Power Project. Others worth mentioning include the PTI’s dharna, the Model Town killing incident and the recent PIA strike.

So what exactly is the reason of PML-N’s success? Is it because it is faced with a meek and divided opposition which is not able to take on the government as it should? Or is it because of how it has handled institutions like judiciary, military, civil service and the media?

We have separately dealt with two of these today. Raza Rumi has excellently summed up their civil service ‘good governance’ model, showing how it is not leading to the best possible consequences for the institution itself. Considering the post-1999 image of being an anti-establishment politician, we have also looked at their relations with the military in the current tenure. Adnan Rehmat has looked at their natural and acquired advantages.

The PML-N economic model and its ideology have also been discussed at length.