PRIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired a special cabinet meeting at Jinnah Convention Centre in Islamabad to review and highlight the performance of his Government on completion of the first year in power.
Speaking on the occasion, he renewed the resolve of the Government to jack up exports to $60 by 2029, making Pakistan a $01 trillion economy by 2035 under Vision-2035 and vowed to eliminate the menace of terrorism to pave the way for foreign investment in the country.
He also expressed dismay over the colossal loss of Rs.850 billion being incurred annually by State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) and emphasized the need to end circular debt in the power sector.
The unconventional public meeting of the federal cabinet in itself is a manifestation of the confidence of the Government in its performance and a declaration to take the process of progress and development to its logical conclusion.
The achievements of the Government in the last one year are documented in a special report prepared by Minister for Planning Prof.
Ahsan Iqbal but salient features were recounted by individual ministers during their statements and presentations before the special meeting, which was held in the presence of media and members of the civil society.
It is hoped that the initiative of the Prime Minister to present the performance of the cabinet before the people will help trigger a nation-wide debate on what the Government did and how it should proceed in future to align itself fully with the aspirations of the masses.
Shehbaz Sharif rightly pointed out that there had been no single instance of corruption during the first year of the Government, which speaks volumes about the element of transparency, good governance and accountability.
His resolve to plug hemorrhages of national resources due to inefficient SOEs augurs well and in fact the ongoing process of structural reforms and right-sizing will help realize this cherished objective.
Minister for Finance Muhammad Aurangzeb, while briefing the cabinet about performance of the Government in the realm of economy, said that the plans for rightsizing of 43 ministries and their 400 attached departments were afoot, whereas pension reforms and agriculture tax were introduced for the first time.
However, prudence demands extreme care in carrying out the plan as not all departments are superfluous and there are scores of others the output of which can be increased with commitment and innovation.
It is also strange that on the one hand, a number of institutions are being merged or closed and on the other hand some others involving billions of rupees are being created, highlighting contradictions in the policy and undermining the intended benefits of right-sizing.
Circular debt is another issue that has assumed central position in the ongoing debate to reform the system and in this backdrop the announcement of the Energy Minister Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari to bring it to zero in four years sounds sweet to ears but it has to be seen how the objective is resolved whether through innovation or further burdening of consumers.
The plan to install pre-paid electricity meters during the next three years at a huge cost of Rs.818 billion also raises questions about the quality of planning as consumers have seen repeated replacements of meters during the last several years without any tangible benefit.
It would be appropriate if this allocation is spent on modernization and improvement of the distribution and transmission system to ensure quality of service to consumers, which is disappointing as evident from frequent shut-downs even in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
The intention to penalize those investing in solar systems (by way of anti-consumer tariff) is also a myopic approach as it amounts to denying benefits of technology to people to protect corrupt practices in the power sector.
The Prime Minister has also emphasized the need to get rid of foreign loans but there seems to be no concrete plan for the purpose.
Investment in industry and agriculture as well as increased focus on export of IT services offer a way out and the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) might consider preparing a comprehensive but workable strategy in this regard.
