Election manifestos

To Pakistani politicians, the election manifesto is a mere piece of paper of forgotten promises

Election promises are meant to be forgotten. This is at least true in the case of Pakistan. To our politicians, election manifesto is a mere piece of paper: history provides the evidence. Hardly ever have we seen our rulers focus on coming good on their election promises– the way they focus on other, “more important” issues, of “national interest”. Our governments are liable to sacrifice public interest in the name of national interest. They have over the years shown that — with no remorse and regret whatsoever — they can go back even on the promises they make so vociferously and repeatedly.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has a new breed of politicians in its fold — well, mostly — but the way its government is taking an about-turn on almost every promise made to the people before the elections show the customary disrespect the politicians tend to have for their very own election manifestos. For instance, how Fawad Chaudhry, a federal minister, was trying to pave the way for his government to start backtracking on an election pledge of core importance for a core group of its supporters, the youth. In a bid to justify his government’s inability to create the 10 million jobs his party pledged as part of its election manifesto, Chaudhry — while speaking at a conference of engineering institutions in Islamabad — urged people to realise that if they “start looking towards the government for jobs then the whole framework of our economy will collapse”.

And when grilled on social media, Chaudhry came up with the same old explanation of being quoted out of context. He may indeed mean what he clarified later in a tweet, but that a minister is required to be careful with his words when speaking on behalf of the government goes without saying. Had he learnt to be careful, he would not have been left “astonished” on “how every statement issued by me is made a headline without context”.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2019.

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