The completion of the government formation process has been achieved with great difficulty. In Pakistan’s politics, it has never happened before that the mandates of several parties are combined to form a government while ignoring the majority of any one party, without causing chaos, protests, and unrest. Once again, troubled parties announced protests, but while keeping in mind the national interest, they did not expand the scope of their protests to the extent that it would shatter national unity.
Efforts to keep the nation united in the national interest have not allowed an environment of chaos to develop in the country. However, it should not be interpreted in any way as a failure to obtain a genuine public mandate. The policy of confrontation with those who always keep the national interest at the forefront will be harmful to the country and the nation.
Even by imprisoning the leaders who preach national unity and imposing restrictions on their meetings, the issues are not going to be resolved. Examples of misuse of government resources are already emerging. The current government is facing mountain-like issues, and among them, the most important are financial problems. In the current precarious situation of Pakistan, even working for a genuinely elected government with a heavy mandate is very difficult.
While the mixed government, with some members of its cabinet “begging” deals with only the IMF, and, a series of talks continues for stringent IMF conditions. All of this lays the foundation for a new kind of brutal treatment of the nation, which future governments will suffer from. However, neither the PML-N nor the PPP, under whose leadership this mixed government is formed, seem to care about it. They seem to be gradually stepping towards reliance on their means, relying on the policy of “begging” with the IMF, for which at least the PPP is deviating from its manifesto.
The second mixed government should have reduced its lavish expenditures and provided relief to the poor by subsidizing, but there has been no announcement or indication of this yet. The government’s lavish expenditures, hefty salaries of assembly members, ministers’ tours, and protocols, all cost the public more than 85 billion rupees annually. Decisions have already been made during negotiations with the IMF to raise the prices of electricity, gas, and petrol, arrangements have been made to hand over the burden of inflation to the common people. In these circumstances, the continued extravagant expenditures of the current rulers will only worsen the plight of the poor.
