By: Asem Mustafa Awan
Billions of rupees have been earmarked for uplifting the country especially the downtrodden segment of society to avail the interest-free facility and stand on their own feet. A dream that is envisioned by the government with Prime Minister Imran Khan at the helm of affairs is harped day in and day out by the honorable ministers of a good time coming.
But the tunes in the past for the recovery of the lost assets what happened to the older slogans of the same government. The billions of dollars stashed by these big wigs have gone where and when will they become part of the national mainstream.
The million house project, health cards, agricultural loans all are there and picture is very rosy but fact of the matter is that all that is said exists in the power point presentations in the ‘policy makers offices’ and nothing seems to come on ground.
The project launching is always there but the project completion, as always is buried in the official rigmaroles followed by corruption and incompetency of the executioners. How many inquiries these ministers are facing in NAB. Everything is there on the record but a click away and is irrefutable documentary evidence.
Every government office has tales which is good enough to put entire nation to shame and governments in the past launched many schemes for poverty alleviation but as always the criteria added with ‘connections’ benefitted the few and the deserving ones were always left out from the schemes.
The connected ones always run away with the money and there is no recovery and the schemes like Yellow Cab, Benazir Income Support all failed as there was no check and balance. Coronavirus has crashed the economies of many countries and millions are faced with abject poverty as the work is not there and Pakistan happens to be no exception.
These schemes are launched for the welfare but have it really been thought by the policymakers as to how the money spent will be well spent.
A question nobody is willing to answer as it is too hot to handle. A small snap check for the government about the announcements made how many of the slogans have been achieved and how many have benefitted. Is health card accepted by all the hospitals? Has the government asked for feedback from the end consumer that is a poor hapless person who has no money for food let alone medicine?
The housing project how many have actually set foot in that house and how the selection was done. There are so many questions which have no clear answers and last but not the least the agriculture produce which in case of wheat is bumper why the flour prices have gone up.
The government must take into account as spending the taxpayers’ money and getting all the claps without the finished product is not missed from the masses and seeing is believing, the promises made must be honored.
The writer is special correspondent at ‘The Dayspring’. He can be reached at [email protected]