ISLAMABAD: Like many fake exercises of the recent past, Prime minister , Imran Khan, on Thursday honoured his top 10 federal ministers for delivering ‘Exceptionally ‘ good’ under his leadership and awarded them appreciation certificates. These awards to performing ministries have come as a big surprise to vast majority of the people of Pakistan.
The ministries which have been awarded for their ‘ best’ output included the ministry of Communications (Murad Saeed), ministry of Planning , Development and Special Initiatives ( Asad Umar), ministry of Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety (Dr Sania Nishtar), ministry of Interior (Shaikh Rashid Ahmad) ,ministry of Industries and Production (Khusro Bukhtiar), ministry of Commerce and Trade ( Abdul Razak Dawood), ministry of Food Security (Fakhar Imam) , ministry of Human Rights ) Dr Shireen Mizari), National Security Division ( Dr Moeed Yousaf) and ministry of Federal Education and Vocational Training ( Shafqat Mahmood).
The ceremony held here to award the best performing ministries was also addressed by prime minister, Imran Khan.
One wonders of performance of the picked up best ministries and ponders as if these government departments were really performing well and, in fact, doing great job to serve the state of Pakistan and its people. Another question which might boggle everyone’s mind could be why does the public at large is moaning under growing financial pressure if at least top 10 ministries were performing in real term. A barometer to judge overall government performance could be the real income of the households . Did the public income grow in the last three and half years of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) rule?. The reports of international monetary institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank etc are answer to this key question. These international institutions have been pinpointing poor performance of Pakistan on all fronts in the PTI rule. Then corruption level is another single most creteria of evaluating good governance of any government . It’s beyond any doubt that level of corruption in Pakistan had manifold in PTI rule. Then one wonders what was the motive of celebrating performance of the best ministries if over all performance of incumbent PTI rule was below average needed to ensure a reasonable level of development in the country.
The official data itself suggests jumping up of inflation in double digit in the PTI rule, quick rise in unemployment since 2018 and the most importantly of the Rupee by 38 % in the last one year or so vis a vis US dollar which opened up a floodgate of unbearable price hike in the country. Today, none other but the vintage prime minister , Imran Khan, himself is conceding time and again of the people miseries due to unmanageable price hike in his rule. Though the ‘learned’ prime minister is making every possible attempt to pass on the buck of rising price hike to the global phenomenon but its undeniable fact that the people are under huge financial pressure for the last couple of year and they do not see any end to their difficulties in the near future.