Here’s a report card of the five ministries of the government of the day, as of today
Having started the journey in May 2013, the government is about midway in its tenure. In any normal democratic dispensation, this should be a good time to oversee a government’s performance. And that is the presumption here.
We begin with the ministries that set out to achieve the goals the government had set for itself; and what better place to look for the goals than the ruling party’s manifesto. Once, the PML-N manifesto for election 2013 has been accepted as the yardstick to judge its performance, the next step is picking the key ministries.
And that puts us in the bind once again. Is this a normal democratic dispensation? We decide to leave out a few key ministries where the writ of government rarely operates. Defence, interior and foreign affairs immediately come to mind. So what do we focus on? We pick five ministries in order to judge the government’s performance in these two and a half years. These include, in no particular order of importance, finance and economic affairs, planning and development, water and power, petroleum and natural resources, and railways.
While the last government had its nemesis in the Supreme Court and the media, this one has had its own in the shape of the leader of the second largest party, making allegations of a rigged election atop a container and virtually bringing the government’s work to a standstill. The PTI’s dharna last year may have lasted about four months but it was preceded and followed by an aggressive campaign against the government by Imran Khan.
Of course, the government could not hold that as an excuse for working less; rather it has been forced to show and do more. Unfortunately, the ministries’ performance remains mixed. In many cases, it’s the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that seems to have come to the rescue of the ministries, one way or the other. In other cases, it’s the international developments like the reduction in the prices of petroleum that have eased the situation at home.
The real policy seems envisioned in, where else but, the Planning and Development ministry’s Vision 2015. But there is a clearly a time gap before the vision becomes a reality. And in a country like ours, where some ministries remain outside the purview of the elected governments, time is one thing you can’t be sure would remain on your side.
So here’s a report card of the five ministries of the government of the day, as of today.
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