ACCORDING to media reports, Prime Minister Imran Khan Friday told his Ministers, Special Assistants and Advisers to pull their socks up and match their words with concrete action rather than giving briefings. He told his team that their departments will have to show performance with timelines and he will personally review implementation of the government decisions. The Prime Minister has also reprimanded several senior officers for adopting delaying tactics in presenting reports and warned that the officers failing to perform up to the expectations would be proceeded against.
We have been emphasizing repeatedly in these columns that the policies and programmes launched by the incumbent government during the last two years have the potential to bring about a real change in the life of the people but, regrettably, except for the cash disbursement programme, hardly any of the initiatives has been implemented in real sense of the word. The Prime Minister and Chief Ministers receive briefing from all Ministries and Departments and on all issues of concern to the masses and directions issued on the occasion spark confidence among people about possible improvement in the situation but nothing transpires at the end of the day. There is something seriously wrong as desired results are not produced despite signing of contracts by the Prime Minister with eleven Ministries that matter much for people. But progress and performance on proformas is something else and resolution of problems of the people is something quite different. People judge performance of the Government on the basis of issues like developmental activities, good governance, availability of essential items, control over price-hike, alertness to check rising crimes and improvement in health, education and communication systems. One can judge performance of the Government by the fact that despite serious warnings by the Prime Minister, mafias continue to create artificial shortages and manipulate prices at will. We hope the Prime Minister would look into the situation in an impartial manner for the sake of welfare of the common man.
