ISLAMABAD – During the past two years, 11 months and 21 days, the federal cabinet held 76 meetings and took 782 decisions out of which 605 were implemented. The number of decisions in the process of implementation is 175 indicating that 77 per cent of the decisions were implemented.
During the said period, a surge in exports was witnessed which is likely to surpass this year’s the set target and a record inflow of remittances is on the cards as well. The foreign exchange reserves are at an all time high, over $17 billion. A steady rise in the stock exchange index was also noticed which crossed 12,000 points, an improvement over the index of 5,000 points when the cabinet took over three years back.
During the same period, the people faced unprecedented floods in the history of the country, which forced the government to cut Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) to make room for the relief efforts. The outgoing cabinet also supervised the passage of the National Finance Commission Award, launching of Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan Package and granting of political rights to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan while the Council of Common Interests (CCI) was turned into an effective body in the same period.
During the last cabinet meeting on Wednesday, all the ministers submitted resignations with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani who, in an emotional tone, lauded the performance of all the ministers. However, the prime minister asked the cabinet members to keep working till the announcement of new cabinet.
Earlier, in his speech, Gilani also showered praises for the past performance of his ministers, leaving the critics to argue if these ministers were so good, why they were asked to leave? The prime minister would throw a farewell dinner to today (Thursday) to his outgoing team to give them a ceremonial exit while President Asif Ali Zardari is also likely to join the party.
