PTI Manifesto 2018 The best manifesto of them all
PTI Manifesto 2018, ‘The Road to Naya Pakistan’, is by far ahead of all other election manifestos produced by other political parties in the country. ‘The Road to Naya Pakistan’ is comprehensive, far reaching and precise-three in one.
‘The Road to Naya Pakistan’ remarkably managed to cover it all in a total 61 pages, 639 sentences and 14,640 words.
In a total of 61 pages, ‘The Road to Naya Pakistan’ lays down three things with great clarity. One-PTI’s beliefs. Two-the purpose of PTI’s campaign. Three-why is PTI running for a particular role. Intent, views and motivation-all there.
In a total of 61 pages, ‘The Road to Naya Pakistan’ has three characteristics. One-it is specific. Two-it is measurable. Three-it is time-bound.
In 639 sentences, ‘The Road to Naya Pakistan’ accurately identifies Pakistan’s five mega structural shortcomings. One-bad, bad governance.
Two-the galloping national debt. Three-the out of control circular debt. Four-perpetually money-losing State Owned Enterprises. Five-the extremely flawed ‘government procurement’ process.
Amazingly, ‘The Road to Naya Pakistan’ not only accurately identifies Pakistan’s five mega structural shortcomings but it also prescribes solutions to these shortcomings. Of the 14,640 words the word ‘reform’ appears 46 times.
To be certain, ‘The Road to Naya Pakistan’ knows that our salvation lies in ‘reforms’. Here are eleven specific reforms that ‘The Road to Naya Paki-stan’ prescribed. One-large-scale reforms in governance. Two-reform the Civil Service. Three-legislative reforms.
Four-reforms in the police system. Five-reform FBR. Six-reform the criminal justice system. Seven-structural reforms. Eight-reform government procurement. Nine-reform NAB. Ten-legal “reforms as part of our commitment to women empowerment”. Eleven-reform the prison system.
For the record, sixty percent of PTI’s mandated period is over. What went wrong? Well, when teamwork happens within a government, things change for good for the people.
Nowhere around the world do gov-ernments work without teamwork. And, teamwork is the “ability to work together toward a common vi-sion.”
‘The Road to Naya Pakistan’ had a vision. The PTI government has neither a common vision nor a team working towards that common vision.
Three years have gone by, PTI is now experimenting with its 6th IG Punjab, 6th FBR chairman, 4th BOI chairman, 4th Secretary Commerce, 3rd Finance Secretary, 3rd SECP chairman, 4th Information Minister, 3rd Food Minister, 4th Secretary Interior, 11th Punjab Irrigation Head, 6th Commissioner Lahore, 14th Assistance Commissioner Bhakar, 7th Commissioner Gujranwala and 9th Secretary Higher Education.
For PTI, it’s time for a course correction. Project ‘The Road to Naya Pakistan’ must be given a time-bound project life cycle with four sequential phases.
Phase I-team creation. Phase II-planning. Phase III-Execution. Phase IV-results. This is exactly how projects are done.
The Prime Minister must make his team of ministers develop a purely ‘quantitative ministerial assessment framework’. The Prime Minister must then evaluate performance of his ministers based on what the ministers have managed to achieve within that assessment framework-as opposed to their performance in the media.
For Punjab, it’s time for a course correction. Punjab must be given a strong politician-administrator, there is no way but that. At the federal level, the Prime Minister must also learn to identify ‘conflict of inter-est’ in public policy. My suggestion: Establish an independent ‘Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner’ to advise the PM on conflict of interest issues (like in Canada).
Finally, the Prime Minister must follow two golden rules on all bureaucratic appointments-merit and tenure protection. To be sure, the cost of maintaining the status quo will be extremely high.
