There are a mountain of challenges facing the new Government but the way Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has started addressing them is a clear testimony that the woes of the people can be mitigated with hard work and determination.
Shehbaz himself is an untiring team leader and has galvanized the same administrative machinery, which was sitting almost idly mainly because of lack of proper guidance and vigilance from above and for fear of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) that poked its nose in everything under the sun, to produce the desired results.
The Government formation is still incomplete as there was no federal cabinet but despite all this the decisions taken by the Prime Minister during the last few days have gone well with the general public as he showed sensitivity towards the plight of the people, who were looking towards him for mitigation of their day-to-day sufferings.
It was in this backdrop that the PM rejected a summary, moved by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA), for increasing the prices of POL products in the wake of an increase in the international market.
On Thursday, Ogra had suggested an unprecedented increase of up to Rs120 per litre (over 83 per cent) in the prices of petroleum products to recover full imported cost, exchange rate loss and maximum tax rates.
However, the Prime Minister decided against any increase to keep the prices unchanged for the current fortnight in order to provide relief to the masses that are already complaining about massive price-hike.
The decision of the PM is understandable as the new Government, which came to power with the commitment to take measures to curb inflation, cannot afford to pursue policies that add to the burden of the people.
However, going by the economic conditions of the country, it might not be feasible for the Government to continue to bear the burden of increase in prices of oil in the international market for long.
The most appropriate response would be to devise a prudent exchange rate policy that results in strengthening rupee against dollar, a scenario that would surely take care of most price-hike related problems.
It may also be pointed out that an increase in fuel charges also triggers a hike in the fuel adjustment segment of the electricity tariff as we witnessed on Friday when prices of electricity were raised by Rs.4.85 per unit for April 2022.
Apart from rising power tariff that hinders business and industrial activities, the new Government is also facing the same old problem of electricity shortages and outages (that the PML-N inherited on assumption of power in 2013 and worked hard to make the country surplus in power generation by 2018).
It is, however, shocking that this time round the reason was not the generation capacity, which is there, but criminal negligence of those at the helm of affairs during the previous Government, who did not take timely measures for maintenance and repair as well as procurement of items required to be replaced because of wear and tear.
People of Pakistan have been left to bear the worst kind of load-shedding for the inability of the officials concerned to do the needful in a timely manner.
Same is the situation in the gas sector where shortages are being experienced even during summer as the Ministry could not take timely decisions for LNG import.
As PML(N) has an experienced team, which delivered on electricity and gas fronts during 2013-18, one hopes speedy measures would be taken to rectify the situation and provide relief to the people.
Shehbaz has also given a practical demonstration of how problems of the citizens can be resolved within the given constraints and resources by operationalizing the much-delayed project of Metro bus linking Peshawar Morr with the new Islamabad airport, which will not only benefit air travellers a lot in terms of time and money but also resolve problems of thousands of daily commuters living in numerous nearby housing societies.
The PML(N) government also had active plans for expansion and improvement of Islamabad Expressway from Koral Chowk to Rewat and the then Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi released Rs.10 billion for the purpose but the progress of work is still wanting after three and a half years.
We hope the Prime Minister would also take notice of this inordinate delay and expedite completion of the project as it would go a long way in resolving traffic mess on the route.
