If govt shirk its responsibility, then situation will arise where all kinds of people will want to take advantage
KARACHI: It isn’t surprising to see why the government of Nawaz Sharif has come under criticism, not only by the political opposition but even by those who see some hope in it.
The government had set out to achieve “change” in two major fields; one was the economy, and a main part of this was to deal with the chronic energy crisis. The second was security, and one of its main planks was the talks process with the Taliban. Now that one year has passed, one can look back and say with a fair degree of certainty that the performance so far has been dismal. As far as the economy is concerned, the budget presented by the government for 2014-15 failed to show any concern for the country’s poor. Instead, it seeks to create economic growth by pampering the rich by giving them exemptions and making life for them in general easy.
As for the energy crisis, instead of getting better it has become far worse, with no improvement in sight in the near future at least. Instead of harnessing cheaper sources of energy, our governments have patronised independent power producers and now rental power plants, and both these options provide energy at exorbitant prices. Furthermore, the present government has wooed China into building a coal-fired power generation plant ignoring the fact that Beijing itself is converting most of its power generation to the environmentally-friendlier gas.
Then comes the security situation, which has seen a dramatic change for the worse in recent times. The attack on Karachi airport, the firing from the ground on a PIA plane coming in to land at Peshawar airport and many other incidents, have resulted in several international airlines shunning Pakistan. This is not only a loss of prestige but will bring hardship for Pakistanis who wish to travel abroad.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should have learned by now that government’s primary job is to provide citizens good governance and to protect their lives and property. This is not really a favour that it needs to give to its citizens but a prerequisite for smooth functioning of state institutions. If a government shirks from this responsibility, then there will arise a situation where all kinds of people and vested interests will want to take advantage of the situation.
Ali Ashraf Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, June 29th, 2014.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
