In the political arena, President Asif Ali Zardari has laid the foundation of three traditions that Pakistan’s political history has so far been completely devoid of: politics of reconciliation, not to use the FIA and NAB to settle political scores and not to send political opponents to jails.
In the economic arena, the PPP government was the first government in the past 13 years to manage a consensus-based National Finance Commission Award. As a consequence, all the four provinces – especially Balochistan – have been receiving more funds from the federal government than ever before.
PPP’s other major achievement has been the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP), the unconditional cash transfer programme to meet Pakistan’s commitments under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of “eradicating extreme poverty and hunger”.
The process of actually identifying eligible potential recipients was originally flawed but has since been reformed through the use of a scientific based Poverty Scorecard (Proxy Means Testing) that also has the World Bank’s stamp of approval.
The BISP now provides unconditional cash assistance to 5.5 million families covering nearly 40 percent of the Pakistani population that survives below the poverty line.
Now, the sad news. The PPP-led government has also laid the foundation of an impending financial disaster. Over the past five years, the PPP-led government has been administering the heaviest dosage of the most evil of all evils, the budgetary deficit.
This multi-trillion rupee deficit, the root of all evils, has been the source of sky-high inflation, unprecedented unemployment and a brewing debt trap (whereby future governments are left with no option but to add on more debt just to pay old debt).
In the hierarchy of devils, Wapda comfortably sits at the very top. Last year, this Nobility of Hell lost a colossal Rs391 billion. A few months ago, Wapda’s losses went up to Rs590 billion and now the same have mysteriously climbed to Rs790 billion.
If Wapda is the Ruler over the Northern Reaches of Hell then Pakistan International Airlines is the Ruler over the Southern Reaches of Hell. Among other Nobles of Hell are Pakistan Steel and Pakistan National Shipping.
In the same hierarchy of devils, reside our legions of demons, their stream of expenditures and its rate of growth. The Cabinet Division, for instance, a mere five years ago, used to spend Rs4 million a day every day of the year – and the same has now gone up to Rs8 million a day every day of the year. That’s a rate of growth of 100 percent.
The PM Secretariat was spending Rs650,000 a day just five years ago – its budget has since gone up to Rs1.5 million a day every day of the year. That’s a rate of growth of 137 percent.
It is election time. And we must thank the Demon of May for we still have leaders ‘who can tell us to go to hell in such a way that we actually look forward to the trip’.
The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad. Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com;
Tweets: @saleemfarrukh
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