Fuel shock

Faisal Vawda expresses confidence that countrymen can bear Rs200 per litre burden out of love for PM


Editorial May 05, 2019

Faisal Vawda is known for his verbal blunders — some of them funny, some rude, and some too offensive to be precisely repeated here in print.

The loud-mouthed claim that the federal minister for water resources made during a recent television talk show, about fortunes waiting to smile on us Pakistanis just in weeks, turned him into nothing but a laughing stock in front of the whole nation.

His brash response a couple of months back to a senior journalist hurling a difficult question at him and a resulting boycott of his press conference by all his colleagues are unlikely to fade away from the memories any time soon.

His tendency to fly into a temper and get carried away in the praise of his leader — during speeches made in parliament or on TV or at public events — only serve to portray him as a non-serious character.

The latest of the bloopers from Vawda is akin to rubbing up the masses the wrong way. While the Rs9.54 per litre rise in the rate of petrol for the month of May is too terrible a shock for the public to absorb, the federal minister has expressed confidence that the countrymen can even bear a Rs200 per litre burden out of their sheer love for the PM and their trust in the abilities of his government.

To state in the politest of words, it’s childish of Vawda to think that the ECC further approving a Rs4.89 per litre rise in the price of diesel and Rs7.46 rise in the price of kerosene will be greeted by the people with smiles.

Vawda is not the only government representative known for such irresponsible and silly remarks. There are others in the government camp capable of triggering loud laughter with their ‘golden quotes’. That public representatives need to be careful about the choice of words goes without saying. Isn’t it better to keep quiet than say words that bring ridicule?

Published in The Express Tribune, May 5th, 2019.

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