THE government has been showing great signs of incompetence since it came to power. Be it handling of the locust attack or the sugar, flour and petrol crises, the government seems to have failed badly.

Recently, the government has lauded the initiation and disclosure of the sugar commission report. On the other hand, Prime Minster Imran Khan, on the floor of the house said mentioned that the sugar mills paid Rs9 billion in tax to the government and got subsidy worth of Rs27 billion.

According to the prime minister, pressure by the mafias forced the government to approve the subsidy, but in his address he failed to mention the actions taken by the government, if any, against the mafias and the expected future actions.

While the enemies of Pakistan have played hard in tarnishing its reputation and portraying it as a ‘hard country’, Pakistan has struggled for decades to portray itself as a soft country in front of the global community.

A major blow to its cause came when the prime minister while addressing the National Assembly called Osama bin Laden a martyr. Although the stance was later clarified by one of the prime minister’s aides, it was too late by then.

It can be considered Mr Khan’s opinion, but as head of the government he needs to be very careful while making such statements as they are considered by the global community as state policy and not an individual’s opinion.

Wahb Irshad
Karachi

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2020