PTI govt’s one-year tenure a tale of U-turns and lies: Ghani

Minister says bad economic policies have adversely affected the common man

KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Information and Archives Saeed Ghani has said that the year-long rule of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has so far been full of blunders and despair. Incompetence, inexperience, ineptitude, incapability and self-righteousness were the hallmark of the PTI government, said Ghani, adding that the promise of good governance seemed far from being fulfilled.

Ghani went on to say that citizens had gone through the most difficult times of their lives during the last one year of the PTI regime. The minister said that Imran Khan was doing the same things he had censured previous governments for. He added that the prime minister had failed to deliver on every promise he made before coming into power and the performance of his cabinet during the last one year was quite dismal.

"Every scheme that had been once labeled by Imran Khan as 'legalised corruption' has now been adopted by him," said the minister. "People have only been given a pack of lies during last year," he added. Ghani said that for Imran Khan, taking U-turns was the quality of a good leader, adding that economic turmoil was another feature of the PTI government during its first year. "His so-called austerity drive is also just nominal as the order of 70 luxury vehicles for his Punjab cabinet ministers is no longer a secret," said Ghani. "The cost of these vehicles was much higher than the money fetched by selling the luxury vehicles of the Prime Minister House," he added.

The information minister lamented that instead of creating 10 million jobs and building five million homes, the PTI regime's policies had resulted in unemployment and homelessness. "People today are unable to acquire and maintain regular, safe, secure and adequate housing due to the unsteady income which is a result of the unplanned economic policies of Niazi's regime," said Ghani.

He added that owing to constant partial accountability and use of National Accountability Bureau for personal vendetta, the bureaucracy was not willing to take responsibility for any decision. Even after the premature change of financial authorities, the tax reforms of the incumbent regime had also failed miserably, the minister said.

The minister said that the PTI's performance in Punjab and KP provincial governments was also not up to the mark. It has already been implicated in a scandal involving the metro bus project that was launched in 2017 in KP, he said.

The minister said that there seemed no prior planning or homework on part of the PTI leadership that resulted in the severe suffering of the poor people of the country. He said that the PTI leadership was only consistent in one thing during the last year and that was 'politically driven accountability'.

The behaviour of the leaders of the PTI in parliament and what they did with the various committees of the National Assembly was also in front of everyone, he said.

Ghani questioned how Imran Khan could claim to break with the status quo when he had so many old faces in his own cabinet. He said that the parliament, instead of doing legislation, kept debating on petty matters, with members continuing their corruption tirade against each other.

The minister said that the rupee plunged to a record low against the dollar and the stock market appeared to be in a free fall state during the one year of the PTI government. The economic growth rate was likely to decelerate to 3.4 per cent this financial year, and further down to 2.7 per cent next year according to a World Bank report, Ghani added.

The minister said that the prime minister had also taken a U-turn on his promise of not seeking loans from abroad by extending begging bowls before Saudi Arabia, UAE and China. He said that the economy was certainly not out of danger yet as being claimed by the PTI.

The one-year rule of the PTI government was a tale of 365 U-turns and 365 lies, the minister added. He said that an independent press was one of the hallmarks of a free society, but what the PTI did with the press of the country during its one-year rule could be termed as a constant effort of silencing the press.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 19^th, 2019.