KARACHI:
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who was hyped as an excellent administrator and a doer, has been quite a disappointment. Perhaps, he was only good for heading a province where the Chief Minister has guaranteed funds. At the federal level, the nature of the job changes and true leadership is required instead of being an administrator. A Prime Minister must have the vision to lead the country toward economic growth.
The Prime Minister appears to have reverted to his old tricks of free flour and free laptop schemes after failing to provide any direction to the country or controlling the free-falling economy. The PDM government must realise that with 48% inflation and the economy on its knees, we are way past bribing people through freebies. These gimmicks are not going to work with the country on the brink of complete collapse. Several people across the country have lost their lives and succumbed to injuries just to get a bag of flour. In any civilised country, this would be reason enough for the government to step down.
Unfortunately, the government seems unaffected. The flour distribution drives are only tainting the image of PDM and PML-N instead of giving them any political mileage. Our leadership must get out of this mentality of temporarily addressing the symptoms and get to the cause, which is our frail economy. They must work toward documenting the economy and agreeing on core long-term economic policies. Otherwise, people will keep losing their lives to get basic items and the leadership will keep begging for money at the international level.
Raja Shafaatullah
Islamabad
Published in The Express Tribune, March 28th, 2023.
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