Bold talking
Sindh and Balochistan continue to be neglected while Khyber-Pakhtunistan is still finding its feet with PTI government
The writer is Editor of The Express Tribune
Our prime minister has blamed the ‘retrogressive policies’ of previous governments for the country’s myriad crises, including terrorism and power outages. In a recent address to a gathering in Shamlakot after inaugurating the 56-kilometre, four-lane motorway between Khanewal and Multan, the premier regretted, the policies of former rulers had adversely affected the countrymen and took a huge toll on the country’s economy.
The PM observed that “Instead of completing the projects after dislodging our government in 1999, they gifted power outages to the industrial, domestic and agriculture sectors.” This was an obvious dig at the Musharraf government.
That is all well and good. But in politics it seems memories are very short. How can we forget all that Mian sahib has done in his previous two stints and then justify this with the comments he made this week?
When we talk about power outages, who can forget the witch hunt conducted by the Ehtesab Bureau of the infamous Saifur Rehman in which independent power producers that had been brought under Benazir Bhutto’s IPP scheme were hounded.
Today, we are still buying a chunk of our power from these independent power producers at rates higher than what the Benazir government had negotiated with them. Had those power projects been completed on time, outages would be less frequent.
Similarly, other projects started by the Benazir government after it came to power in 1988 were shut down when Mian Nawaz Sharif became prime minister.
It was in the same coin that the Benazir government responded when it was given power in 1993 for a second time. Many of the projects started by the Nawaz government were either shelved or delayed with the result that the country eventually had to pay millions in added costs when these were finally resumed or reinstated. A good example would be the Lahore-Islamabad Motorway.
But our PM is not one to deal with facts alone. In his speech he went on to refer to the scourge of terrorism. He told his audience that precious lives of policemen, soldiers, civil administration officials and common citizens had been lost.
There are many who argue that we cannot simply blame General Ziaul Haq for sowing the seeds of extremism in the country and that it was both the Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif government that also played their part.
I remember meeting late General Naseerullah Babar, then interior minister in BB’s government in the mid ’90s, taking credit for the creation of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The links that the Sharif’s PML-N party have with militant and extremist groups are legendary. They have been political allies.
So it was a refreshing change when Mian sahib said that his government has taken bold decisions vis-à-vis terrorism and followed them with actions. Many are still waiting for those actions to happen though. In his speech he also said: “We will not budge from our stance against terrorism and soon Pakistan will be a better place.” One doesn’t understand this in all honesty. If we look at the Nawaz government’s previous stance on terrorism, for example, that is nothing to look forward to.
Then there were more nuggets. Linking the construction of roads with close interaction among people of different places, he said shortened distances would remove ethnic and linguistic divides and people would get closer to each other. But the problem so far has been that with the exception of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor - much of the work in terms of roads or other infrastructure projects have been in Punjab.
Sindh and Balochistan continue to be neglected while Khyber-Pakhtunistan is still finding its feet with the PTI government. National cohesion is a good thing but it should come in the form of even-handed development and allocation of resources.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 23rd, 2015.
The PM observed that “Instead of completing the projects after dislodging our government in 1999, they gifted power outages to the industrial, domestic and agriculture sectors.” This was an obvious dig at the Musharraf government.
That is all well and good. But in politics it seems memories are very short. How can we forget all that Mian sahib has done in his previous two stints and then justify this with the comments he made this week?
When we talk about power outages, who can forget the witch hunt conducted by the Ehtesab Bureau of the infamous Saifur Rehman in which independent power producers that had been brought under Benazir Bhutto’s IPP scheme were hounded.
Today, we are still buying a chunk of our power from these independent power producers at rates higher than what the Benazir government had negotiated with them. Had those power projects been completed on time, outages would be less frequent.
Similarly, other projects started by the Benazir government after it came to power in 1988 were shut down when Mian Nawaz Sharif became prime minister.
It was in the same coin that the Benazir government responded when it was given power in 1993 for a second time. Many of the projects started by the Nawaz government were either shelved or delayed with the result that the country eventually had to pay millions in added costs when these were finally resumed or reinstated. A good example would be the Lahore-Islamabad Motorway.
But our PM is not one to deal with facts alone. In his speech he went on to refer to the scourge of terrorism. He told his audience that precious lives of policemen, soldiers, civil administration officials and common citizens had been lost.
There are many who argue that we cannot simply blame General Ziaul Haq for sowing the seeds of extremism in the country and that it was both the Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif government that also played their part.
I remember meeting late General Naseerullah Babar, then interior minister in BB’s government in the mid ’90s, taking credit for the creation of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The links that the Sharif’s PML-N party have with militant and extremist groups are legendary. They have been political allies.
So it was a refreshing change when Mian sahib said that his government has taken bold decisions vis-à-vis terrorism and followed them with actions. Many are still waiting for those actions to happen though. In his speech he also said: “We will not budge from our stance against terrorism and soon Pakistan will be a better place.” One doesn’t understand this in all honesty. If we look at the Nawaz government’s previous stance on terrorism, for example, that is nothing to look forward to.
Then there were more nuggets. Linking the construction of roads with close interaction among people of different places, he said shortened distances would remove ethnic and linguistic divides and people would get closer to each other. But the problem so far has been that with the exception of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor - much of the work in terms of roads or other infrastructure projects have been in Punjab.
Sindh and Balochistan continue to be neglected while Khyber-Pakhtunistan is still finding its feet with the PTI government. National cohesion is a good thing but it should come in the form of even-handed development and allocation of resources.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 23rd, 2015.