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Can the PPP deliver? - Lahore_Real_Estate - 01-29-2011 02:24 PM
In a previous column, I wrote about the lackadaisical performance of the PML-N as the major opposition party. Also, how they were hoodwinked by those at the helm of affairs and how they kept refusing to honour solemn commitments, month after month. How the removed Chief Justice of Pakistan and his colleagues remained in the wilderness, and the Dogar court ruled the roost.
All this, when the ruling party led by a sharp-witted co-chairman made hay while the sun was shining. The hallmark of the rulers’ performance was incompetence and corruption. The prices of daily-use commodities soared, unemployment went up, poverty increased, and power and gas became scarce and more expensive, while the delivery of services deteriorated rapidly. To add insult to injury, the largest Cabinet in the world was foisted on an impoverished country. Fleets of expensive luxury vehicles were imported for the use of public functionaries, and budgets for the palatial buildings of the political masters and for foreign tours were phenomenally raised. Daily new stories of high-level corruption hit the newspapers and television channels. Billions of loans taken by influential people were written off.
The remedy found by the regime was to run around the whole world with a begging bowl for grants and loans. Then to somehow manage to get loans from the international financial agencies, and especially the IMF, was hailed as a great achievement.
Commitments to impose further taxes on the people were made without seeking approval from the people’s representatives. More loans were secured in two years than the total amount taken during the last six decades. No thought was given as to how this poor country will be able to payback this huge debt. Loans from abroad per se are not necessarily bad. In fact, such input is necessary if kept within reasonable limits and used properly. But how could these be justified if there was poor governance, no assurance about personal security, if there is uncalled for extravagance, excessive waste and above all unbridled, non-stop corruption.