When the premier gets bored
Victory for any lobby group is the defeat of the nation.
In this newspaper, we recently reported a story regarding a special cabinet meeting, explaining to our readers how the well-entrenched real estate and textile lobbies prevailed over the federal cabinet at the eleventh hour and amended the budgetary proposals. In the same meeting, the federal ministers also demanded an increase in their salaries, stressing that they be paid what civil servants were being offered. Victory for any of these lobbies is the defeat of the nation.
Now to get some insight into the extent to which our political leadership cares about making the country an ‘Asian Tiger’ and one of 25 fastest growing economies, the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting gives a fair idea. The NEC meeting had been held five days before the special cabinet meeting and was chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and attended by heads of provincial governments. The meeting had been convened to approve the new fiscal year’s national development plan.
But a special agenda item was approving a road map for ‘Vision 2025’ — a document that promises making the country a territory where there will be no suicide bombings and everyone will have access to electricity and primary education by 2025. The vision also promises that an increasing proportion of the population — from 48 per cent to 90 per cent — increasing annual exports from $25 billion to $150 billion and achieving a sustainable growth rate of between seven and eight per cent.
The vision’s architect, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal, had spent considerable time and money in preparing a presentation for the NEC meeting, hoping that the document that promises transforming the nation would have great deal of premier’s attention. Unfortunately, it did not happen.
After approving the development programme, which was all about brick and motor approach, the PM suddenly stood up from his chair. This panicked Iqbal who requested the premier to take a presentation on V-2025, but PM was tired and did not want to see boring slides of economic jargons that were dry of eye-catching projects like the Metro Bus and motorways.
The premier left his chair and was walking outside the meeting hall when Iqbal approached the PM and requested him to at least give approval of the V-2025. The premier graciously accepted his request and approved the Vision to transform the nation without even having a look at it.
The rest was the job of the mandarins of the PM’s Office who were asked to issue the press statement announcing the approval of the Vision 2025. Congratulations to the nation!
Published in The Express Tribune, June 23rd, 2014.
Now to get some insight into the extent to which our political leadership cares about making the country an ‘Asian Tiger’ and one of 25 fastest growing economies, the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting gives a fair idea. The NEC meeting had been held five days before the special cabinet meeting and was chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and attended by heads of provincial governments. The meeting had been convened to approve the new fiscal year’s national development plan.
But a special agenda item was approving a road map for ‘Vision 2025’ — a document that promises making the country a territory where there will be no suicide bombings and everyone will have access to electricity and primary education by 2025. The vision also promises that an increasing proportion of the population — from 48 per cent to 90 per cent — increasing annual exports from $25 billion to $150 billion and achieving a sustainable growth rate of between seven and eight per cent.
The vision’s architect, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal, had spent considerable time and money in preparing a presentation for the NEC meeting, hoping that the document that promises transforming the nation would have great deal of premier’s attention. Unfortunately, it did not happen.
After approving the development programme, which was all about brick and motor approach, the PM suddenly stood up from his chair. This panicked Iqbal who requested the premier to take a presentation on V-2025, but PM was tired and did not want to see boring slides of economic jargons that were dry of eye-catching projects like the Metro Bus and motorways.
The premier left his chair and was walking outside the meeting hall when Iqbal approached the PM and requested him to at least give approval of the V-2025. The premier graciously accepted his request and approved the Vision to transform the nation without even having a look at it.
The rest was the job of the mandarins of the PM’s Office who were asked to issue the press statement announcing the approval of the Vision 2025. Congratulations to the nation!
Published in The Express Tribune, June 23rd, 2014.