Busy last day

The last day in office is usually reserved for quiet contemplation and reflection when the government goes over what it accomplished in its tenure and what it did not. So it is surprising that the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet was weighed down instead on May 31^st by seemingly endless hours of decision-making on a whole gamut of issues. The PML-N government was apparently in a rush to approve a package of five-year tax exemptions and a raft of other incentives for regions once administered by federal and provincial authorities to enable their mainstreaming and eventual merger with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

As any member of the government should know there are only two good days on the job: the first day and the last day. The longer a government has been on the job the better is its last day. As a government that completed its tenure, the PML-N should perhaps have been overcome by feelings of euphoria and happiness but the outgoing prime minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, would have none of it, preferring to consolidate his party’s hand in the future power stakes of the country. Populist measures such as ending the collection of a Neelum-Jhelum surcharge on electricity bills and tax exemptions as well as other incentives can work like a charm in the upcoming election. By giving off the impression that it is preoccupied more with the status of projects it began or conceived and will not detract from its goals under any circumstances, the administration of Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has shown the resolve that is needed in government and elsewhere too — even if the motivation for that is perpetuation of self-interest. We applaud the fact that the outgoing government chose to cast aside the sentimentality of another democratic transition for more practical steps. Pakistan is in need of more pragmatism. 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 2^nd, 2018.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.