ISLAMABAD – Dissatisfied with the government’s dilly-dallying, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Thursday decided not to give even one day to it beyond the announced 45-day deadline for the implementation of the reforms agenda.
At a meeting chaired by Nawaz Sahrif, who was also briefed by the PML-N team on the negotiations with the government, the party decided not to panic but agreed to wait for the expiration of the deadline before taking any extreme step.
A source in the party told Pakistan Today that Nawaz Sharif decided in consultation with his comrades that the PML-N would patiently watch the government’s actions for 45 days but once the deadline was over the party might go to masses to the streets exert public pressure on the rulers.
The source said that PML-N’s central command expressed ‘extreme’ dissatisfaction with the pace with which the government was moving to implement reforms agenda. “The PML-N leader also rejected the list of written-off bank loans provided by the State Bank on government’s request saying that the names of certain persons and their companies had been technically deleted from the lists,” said the sources.
The PML-N committee led by Senator Ishaq Dar told party patron Nawaz Sharif that the government was using delaying tactics to buy time and had failed so far to take any practical steps. “They told Nawaz Sharif that instead of embarking on austerity drive the government announced Rs 3 billion project of extending parliament lodges,” said the source.
The PML-N leaders had the opinion that the government had so far failed to sack even a single corrupt minister or other government official and there was also no breakthrough on pending new accountability bill. According to the source, the party leaders also expressed anger over the delay in right-sizing the federal cabinet. The meeting, however, recommended the name of Justice (r) Raza Khan for the single-member judicial commission to investigate the issue of sugar price hike.
A press release issued by the PML-N office said that Nawaz Sharif directed the committee members to ensure implementation of the agenda in the stipulated time of 45 days because any extension of the time period would in no way serve the national interest. He urged the members to give precedence to the agenda and so demonstrate their commitment to the task.
“Participants of the meeting generally expressed their dissatisfaction with the government’s conduct and pace of the talks. They were generally of the opinion that the government made no progress even on issues that could have entailed a concrete resolution by now, the release said.
The meeting urged committee members to make the government make public lists of people who got their bank loans written-off for political considerations and were also having in billions with them,” it added.
