Election 2008
likely expectations from the elected govt
The general elections, scheduled to be held in the country on February 18, are now only 2-3 weeks away. It may, therefore, be interesting to analyse what would be the likely expectations of the people of this country from the newly elected government.
Since the previous government has left and the caretaker government has taken over about 2-3 months ago, a number of unfavourable developments have taken place. The PPP leader and the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated when she came out of the Liaqat Bagh after finishing her election speech. Her assassination was followed by serious turmoil, loot and arson throughout the length and breadth of the country. Particularly in Sindh, private and public property including private cars, petrol pumps, railway engines and railway tracks, banks and jewellers shops etc were damaged, burned and looted. While a commission of enquiry has been constituted to look into the matter, the loss resulting from the aforesaid loot and arson is estimated to be over Rs.100 billion.
There is both political and economic instability in the country right now. Although the government has repeatedly stressed that the elections will be conducted on time. Besides, the wheat flour situation, which has already been causing concern for the last so many months, had worsened in recent weeks. The item has disappeared from some parts of the country and its price has increased two-folds. However, the situation has now slightly improved, after the federal food committee (FFC) (constituted by the government recently) took steps to check hoarding, profiteering and smuggling of wheat/ wheat flour across the border.
In addition to the above, power shortage resulting from water scarcity and damage caused to the infrastructure for power generation (during recent riots) caused great inconvenience to the people in all parts of the country during this winter season. The industrial and commercial sector has also suffered badly due to the power shortage and load-shedding during the last few weeks. A number of industrial units have reportedly been closed and their employees have become unemployed.
But, the prohibitive price of wheat flour has, in particular, hard-hit a large number of poor families who are now finding it extremely difficult to make both ends meet within their limited income. The caretaker government is presently considering issue of ration cards to such families to enable them to purchase items of daily use such as wheat flour, pulses, vegetable ghee and sugar etc. from the utility stores, at subsidized prices.
In the above-mentioned circumstances, and poor and low-income groups have suffered badly. People falling in these categories would naturally expect that the elected government should come to their rescue and help them in getting out of the situation, instead of celebrating their victory in the elections. To be able to do this, the party winning in the elections would have to manage with a small cabinet. It would have to shun ostentatious profile and adopt austerity measures. This is, also, the need of the hour at a time when the budget deficit is poised to shoot up to 6.8 percent of the GDP from the present level of 4.2 percent, due to the heavy burden of subsidy on oil, electricity, wheat flour and fertilizers etc.
People are now tired of frequent increases in the prices of items of daily use such as wheat flour, rice, pulses, sugar and vegetable ghee etc as a result of speculative hoarding, profiteering and smuggling etc. They would expect from the new government that it should be able to ensure availability of all items of daily use at reasonable prices, not only at the utility stores but also in the open market. This is a normal practice the world over.
At the same time, it is the duty of the government to protect the poorest of the poor in the country. The double-digit food inflation during the last 2 years had badly eroded the limited income of the poor.
In addition, people would expect from the new government that it should save them from the long and painful load-shedding during the coming summer season. It would of course not be possible for the government to increase the available electricity supply of electricity in the short run. However, an improvement could still be brought about even in the short run through conservation and better management. In the long run, construction of mega dams, power generation from coal and development of wind and solar energy could be of immense help in overcoming the current power shortage.
In all future energy plans, government should give preference to power generation from coal, water, wind and sun. All these sources are cheaper and locally available in abundance.
Even the industrial and commercial sectors would like the new government to address and resolve the problem relating to the growing power shortage, as quickly as possible. During the last few months, both the sectors have suffered losses due to frequent power outages. To solve some of the energy problems, business community was recently required to close their shops early in the evening to conserve energy for industrial and other important uses.
The new government would, no doubt, be facing a difficult task in putting the economy back on the right track. It will have to control the soaring fiscal deficit, bring down inflation – particularly food inflation from its higher level and contain the ballooning trade/current account deficit.
http://jang.com.pk/thenews/feb2008-w...02-2008/p8.htm