Caretaker prime minister, Anwaarul Haq Kakar has been hosted at the Great Hall of the People banquet by President Xi Jinping.

During his China visit to participate in the Third Belt and Road Forum, Kakar has spoken at length on the criticality of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, highlighting its significance as a national cause and national endeavor for every Pakistani.

It is a fact that various CPEC projects had suffered inordinate delays during the tenure of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.

The government that came to power following the ouster of PTI government last year through the passage of a successful vote of no-confidence against the then prime minister Imran Khan, the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz)-led coalition government, couldn’t do much in view of extremely precarious economic conditions in the country, most of which the PTI government had bequeathed to it.

The caretaker setup, however, appears to have responded to the economic challenges in a better way.

Bringing stalled CPEC projects back on tracks is one of the incumbent government’s successful efforts. Although economic situation seems to have improved a lot, the country’s economy is not out of the woods yet.

Both the civilian and military leaderships deserve praise for tirelessly working towards achieving certain economic goals, including the arrest of Pak rupee slide against the USD. The recent decline in prices of POL products is no insignificant success either.

The provincial governments seem to be cashing in on this opportunity in order to win more and more public favour or approval. Caretaker Punjab chief minister Syed Mohsin Naqvi reducing the public transport fares by 20 percent and meeting commuters on board intercity buses to inquire whether or not they are traveling by paying 20 percent less charges as fares is a strong case in point.

Last but not least, prime minister Kakar’s meeting with President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum in which both the dignitaries discussed a host of important issues relating to region and beyond clearly suggests that Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister is as powerful as any elected prime minister of his country.

In my view, therefore, the present caretaker setup is likely to last beyond one year.

Sadiq Husain Dhillon (Lahore)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023