THE fact that the federal cabinet, in its meeting on Tuesday, devoted much of its time to discussion on shortage and price-hike of food items is reflective of the concern of the highest forum over an issue that matters much to the people of Pakistan. Prime Minister Imran Khan also renewed his resolve not to rest until prices are brought down to provide relief to the masses.
The media account of the meeting suggests some ministers raising fingers towards bureaucracy for delayed decisions especially in respect of import of wheat, forcing the country to pay extra on imports and depriving people of an opportunity to have access to cheaper imported wheat. If true, this is not the right proposition as bureaucracy does not function in a void when full-fledged ministers are there to look after ministries. Does it imply that the ministers were either ignorant or lacked required competency to comprehend even most important issues concerning their ministries? There is also another dimension to the issue: bureaucrats are unwilling to take responsibility for crucial moves/decisions owing to crude intervention of NAB in matters purely administrative in nature. This problem is known to the Government leaders and the question arises what measures they took to shield bureaucrats and boost their shattered confidence. Working of the Government and its output is also jeopardized due to non-appointment of heads of different departments (currently 129 in number) not for months but for years. Despite repeated assertions by the Prime Minister there is no worthwhile progress towards appointment of regular heads and the policy of ad-hocism is playing havoc with the functioning of these organizations. Streamlining of decision-making is need of the hour as state of indecision not only resulted into financial losses and hardships for people in the case of wheat but the same is going to happen with the import of LNG as instead of taking measures to cope with the shortfall of gas the Government is just content on warning people of impending crisis.
