Falling for a populist agenda

Shedding light on the performance of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government during the past three years, an independent think tank report has revealed that it has been able to achieve only four out of 89 envisaged targets in the party’s election manifesto.
According to the group, the ruling party has “obsessed itself with the cliché of developing infrastructure” and abandoned reforms that are critical for the country’s sustainable economic growth. Some of these promises included privatization, deregulation and liberalization of the economy. Instead, it has adopted a more populist agenda geared toward the next elections.
As pointed out in the report, the Sharif government has been censured for undertaking grand projects that add little or no long-term value to a majority of the population. The government’s flagship metro bus project is a prime example of wasting billions of rupees of taxpayers’ money on mega projects that provide a great photo opportunity but are not commercially viable. The much-publicized metro bus between Islamabad and Rawalpindi, constructed at a staggering cost of about Rs45 billion, is only operating half of its fleet due to lukewarm response from commuters. Without any rationale, these large-scale infrastructure projects are perhaps aimed at gaining more political mileage than doing public good.
In its first one and a half year in power, the government swiftly executed three capital market transactions as part of the privatization pillar to bolster Pakistan’s economy. Success of these deals encouraged the government to announce the sale of strategic assets from mid-2015. However, the government decided to stall the privatization program in face of stiff political resistance against proposed plans.
Meanwhile, giant state entities like PIA, Pakistan Railways and Steel Mills and other power distributors have continued to bleed because of inefficient business operations and inept management, causing huge losses to the national kitty. The privatization plans have now finally been approved, but it will still not be an easy ride for the authorities. To make these sell-offs a success, it is important that they should be executed with complete transparency, accountability and in alignment with public interests.
The government has struggled to revive Pakistan’s economy, having missed its annual growth target for the third year in a row in 2015-16. Alarmingly, the agricultural sector actually shrank in the outgoing fiscal year, while the large-scale industrial growth was also below the official target. Similarly, there have been no revolutionary steps or much higher budgetary allocations for education and health sectors as promised in the manifesto. Even though overcoming long spells of power outages has continued to be a daunting task, the future could be brighter with rising remittances and new energy projects being brought up under the CPEC project.
The Sharif government should strive for good governance rather than pursuing populist policies that do not improve lives of ordinary citizens in the long run. All efforts should be made to tackle challenges that are hindering effective and efficient delivery of public services, and inclusiveness of the common man in local governments. The government should strike the right balance between economic reforms and public welfare to meet objectives outlined in its agenda. Good performance on these parameters will subsequently win the hearts of voters without flashy projects or other politically motivated tactics.