Better late than never

Almost halfway into his government’s five-year term, Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged his cabinet members to step up their game and stop making excuses. It was an unusually blunt and mostly welcome speech made on Tuesday, but not without causes for concern. One unfortunate example was when he said it took his party three months to understand the system. As we have previously written, top-tier governance cannot have a learning curve, especially in a country with as many problems as Pakistan. The excuse is also weakened because his party, and indeed his original cabinet, included several people who previously served as federal or provincial ministers. In some cases, these ministers were removed temporarily by the PM, only to be given other ministries a few months later. Some of them are still in the cabinet. Even if we were to accept the learning curve argument for first-time cabinet members, ‘experienced’ ministers should not be allowed to hide behind it.

Looking forward, we can only hope that the new target-based policy can lead to better results. Imran said rationalising the power sector and subsidies, enhancing exports, and creating wealth are among the priority targets. These, and his other announced targets, make perfect sense, though achieving them will still take some doing. Take, for example, pension reforms, which everyone not receiving one can agree, are necessary. They will not go down well with millions of recipients, especially if the reforms are not applied across the board to retirees from all government employers. Even addressing power sector subsidies will require butting heads with a powerful and influential sector of the economy. Reallocation or removal of subsidies will also anger citizens who may be negatively affected by the withdrawal of tariffs. In many cases, these will be wealthier, and thus more influential citizens.

Pakistan has several other longstanding problems, many of which have not gotten better under the incumbent government. External factors such as Covid-19 and friction with the opposition do figure into this, but, better late than never, at least the top man acknowledges his own team’s role in the mess. We hope his selection policy in the future stays true to his words.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2020.

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