The present government has budged from promised reforms and has taken the route of popular economic measures of development politics as well as other populist measures.
Seventh tracking report - covering the time period of January-June 2016- is titled "Bad Economics is Bad Politics" by Policy Research Institute of Market Economy (PRIME) states the "central government of Pakistan Muslim League (N) has chosen to unfollow promised reforms ie privatization, deregulation and liberalisation, and adopted popular economic measures underpinned by what it calls as development politics".
The report cites examples of a stalled privatization programme in the energy sector, wherein privatization of Gencos and Discos has already been "shelved," and states that government insists that the process has only been delayed. The tracking report notes that in the energy sector certain reforms have been introduced during the last three years although the process has been slow.
These reforms are mandatory for wheeling of electricity by Discos and NTDC; net-metering (sale guarantee) for the small producers/consumers; Developing alternative renewable energy sources; and developing and creating a wholesale market for electricity.
There are two areas of PML-N economic manifesto; (i) economic revival and; (ii) energy security. The report tracks down 89 targets set out by PML-N to achieve economic revival and energy security. Out of a maximum score of 10, the report awards a score on the basis of three parameters: legislative development (2.5), institutional framework (2.5) and implementation (5) on all targets.
Individually considered, in the area of economic revival, the PML-N central government earned an overall average of 4.17 out of 10; whereas in the area of energy security the overall average score is 4.51.
The present government has completed its three years and during this time, the score has kept on improving. In the area of economic revival, the report maintains the government got a lift from 3.17 to 4.64 whereas in the area of energy security, it increased from 4.16 to 5.2.
Previous tracking reports have argued that without ensuring the energy security, the economic revival will remain a far-fetched dream. While reiterating its hypothesis, the 7th report clarifies that ensuring energy security is a necessary condition for the economic revival, but not a sufficient condition.
Commenting on the development politics of PML-N, the report lays out two conditions for testing economic viability of an infrastructure project: first, whether in the long term it is beneficial or not; and second, whether it is beneficial for the majority.
The report concludes that, most probably, there are only very few infrastructural projects of the ruling party that will fulfil both of these conditions.
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