ISLAMABAD – It took the PPP government three years to seek judicial review of the PPP founding chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s case, although in his first address to parliament, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had promised to bring a parliamentary resolution on the issue. In his first speech to the National Assembly after being elected unanimously, Prime Minister Gilani had asked the assembly to pass a resolution condemning Zulfikar’s “judicial murder” – a rhetoric which was yet to be materialised in three years. But this is not the only commitment made by the Gilani government that still awaited its implementation. There are others too.
Unveiling his 100-day plan, soon after taking a vote of confidence, the prime minister had announced the abolition of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), revisiting the PEMRA Ordinance, doing away with the Federal Crimes Regulation (FCR), restoring the sacked judges, increasing the wheat support price, reviving trade and student unions, fixing the minimum wage at Rs 6,000, asking the militants to surrender and launching an austerity drive. However, around 90 percent of these tall claims could not be met even until now as neither the PPP nor the prime minister bothered to implement their commitments.
There are many other promises which have either been reversed or been dumped with a hope that the beleaguered media and the people at large with their short-memory would also forget these commitments with the passage of time. The NAB has not been wrapped up. Rather the government has changed its version. Despite repeated demands made by the FATA MPs, the FCR has not been abolished. The government has taken a U-turn and a new and revised version of the FCR is being brought in with reforms in the black law. The PEMRA Ordinance has not been revised.
Rather the government has trashed this plan with an intention to gag the media it wants to control. During his speech, the prime minister had also assured that the sacked judges would soon be restored, assuring the House of implementing the Murree Declaration signed by PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif. However, it took the Gilani government almost one year to restore all the sacked judges including Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, only after a long march which compelled the army chief to intervene and convince the regime to restore the judges.
Gilani had assured the parliamentarians that the minimum wage would be fixed at Rs 6,000 which was later enhanced to Rs 7,000. But the government has turned a blind eye to the issue.
Prime Minister Gilani and his forgotten promises
