ISLAMABAD – The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has slammed the government’s three-year performance in its white paper, to be released within the next few days.
The white paper, which is being given final touches and is likely to be issued in the coming week, says the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)-led coalition government was toeing former president Pervez Musharraf’s marks, Pakistan Today has learnt reliably.
It said true democracy was non-prevalent in the country under the PPP’s government and “it was the troika of the president, PM and army chief which was calling the shots, not the people’s elected parliament.”
“The white paper is divided into four to five major chapters, each elaborating the government’s lapses and failures in detail,” said a source in the PML-N. The PML-N’s white paper claims that the PPP government even failed to fulfill its own manifesto.
“The paper claims that the prime minister could not translate his 100-day programme announced immediately after taking charge of his office into reality. It says that the government badly failed in making decisions on issues that could be implemented within hours or days like reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry that caused chaos inviting more political and economic instability,” said the source.
The source said that the PML-N white paper criticises the government for not trying Musharraf under Article 6, not establishing a judicial commissions to probe into the Red Mosque incident and May, 12, 2007 carnage in Karachi.
“The paper says that the government’s fiscal policies completely failed to mitigate sufferings of the masses rather its dependence on the IMF and World Bank brought more burden on poverty-and-unemployment-stricken people of the country,” said the source.
The white paper claims that the corruption in various ministries and public sector enterprises snowballed in the last three years with no check from the executive, rather the government threatened those individuals or organisations, like the Transparency International, which revealed stories of the corruption of top government functionaries and Gilani’s cabinet members.
“The PML-N has also assailed the government for not finalising a new accountability commission bill,” the source added. The PML-N has also said the PPP government has been ridiculing superior courts. “The government’s delay in opening Swiss cases and terminating contractual employees despite repeated orders of the apex court have been counted as glaring examples of PPP’s disrespect for an independent judiciary,” the source said.
The white paper claims that the government did not take interest in unearthing mega corruption scandals like the haj, Pakistan Steel Mills and NICL. “The paper says that all crucial decisions are being taken in the presidency while parliament is just used as a rubber stamp,” the source said.
The PML-N’s paper says the government has failed to implement unanimous resolution passed by the joint in-camera session of parliament on October 18, 2009 on national security. It also criticised the government for failing to arrest Benazir Bhutto’s assassins.
PPP government toeing Musharraf’s line: PML-N
