Sindh Minister for Information and Archives Saeed Ghani on Sunday said that the one-year rule of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had so far been full of blunders and despair.
He said that incompetence, inexperience, ineptitude, incapability and self-righteousness were the hallmarks of the PTI government. The minister said that the promise of good governance seemed far from being fulfilled. Instead, bedlam, dysfunctional administration, chaos and mayhem remained the buzzword during last one year, he added. He said that leaders of the PTI should not have made overstatements before coming into the power.
Saeed Ghani said that the people of the country went through the most difficult times of their lives during the last one year. He said that Imran Khan was doing everything for which he had censured the previous governments. He said that the PM failed to deliver every promise he made before coming into power and the performance of his cabinet during last year was quite disappointing. Every such scheme that had been once labelled by Imran Khan as ‘legalised corruption’ had now been adopted by him, the minister said.
Ghani said that people had been only given a pack of lies during the last year. He said that for Imran Khan, taking U-turns was the quality of a good leadership. He said that economic turmoil was another feature of PTI government. His so-called austerity drive was also just nominal, as the order placed for acquiring 70 luxury vehicles for his Punjab cabinet ministers was no more a secret, he said. The cost of these vehicles was much higher than the money fetched by selling the luxury vehicles of the Prime Minister’s House, he added.
The minister said that the performance of the PTI during the last one year was neither striking nor impressive, but it was full of lies and U-turns. He said that instead of creating 10 million jobs and building five million homes, the PTI regime’s policies had resulted in unemployment and homelessness. “People today are unable to acquire and maintain regular, safe, secure and adequate housing due to unsteady income, which is a result of the unplanned economic policies of the Niazi’s regime,” he said. He said that owing to constant partial accountability and use of National Accountability Bureau for personal vendetta, the bureaucracy was not willing to take any responsibility for any decision. “Even after the premature change of financial authorities, the tax reforms of the present regime have failed miserably,” the minister said.
Saeed Ghani said that the first year of the PTI government lacked both the direction and decisions. He said that performance of the PTI government in Punjab and KP was also not up to the required standard. It had already been implicated in a scandal involving metro bus project that was launched in 2017 in KP, he said.
He said that the PTI government during the last one year had failed at almost all the fronts, predominantly the economy. He said that there seemed to be no prior planning or homework on part of the leadership of the PTI that resulted in the server suffering of the poor people of this country. He said that the leadership of the PTI was only consistent in one thing during the complete past year and that was “politically driven accountability”. The behaviour of PTI leaders in parliament and what they did with the various committees of the National Assembly was also in front of everyone, he said.
Saeed Ghani wondered how Imran Khan could claim to break the status quo when he had so many old faces in his own cabinet. He said that parliament instead of doing legislation kept on debating on petty matters, with members continuing their corruption tirade against each other. He said that the rupee plunged to a record low against the dollar and the stock market appeared in a free-fall state during the one year of the PTI government. The economic growth rate was likely to decelerate to 3.4 percent this financial year, and further down to 2.7 percent the next year, according to a World Bank report, he said. He said that the PM had also taken a U-turn on his promise of not seeking loans from abroad by extending begging bowls before Saudi Arabia, UAE and China. He said the economy was certainly not out of danger as yet, as being claimed by the leaders of the PTI.
The minister said that a high inflation rate combined with low economic growth was the hallmark of the one-year rule of the PTI government. The past year was a tale of 365 U-turns and 365 lies, he added. He said that an independent press was one of the hallmarks of a free society, but what the PTI did with the press of the country during the past one year could be termed as a constant effort of silencing the press.
The minister said that short-term relief measures adopted by the PTI government during the past year would not work, as new debts were constantly accumulated. He said that today the country was facing worsening unemployment problem owing to the sluggish economy.
Saeed Ghani said that every word said during the last one year was a lie; every promise a farce and every claim a hopeless failure. He said that the one year of the PTI government had set an example of bad governance.
