ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) has seen disastrous consequences of leading the coalition government with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and other political parties who had joined the opposition alliance.
PML-N has started witnessing the aftermath of racing to get power by toppling the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government led by former prime minister Imran Khan primarily on the advice of PPP’s co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari who had asked the then major opposition party to lead from the front after the success of no-trust motion.
The ruling party failed to make a visible change in governance and policies of the previous government led by Imran Khan as yet despite holding the most powerful ministries in the Centre and Punjab, even though it is still reluctant to end fuel subsidies approved by the previous regime.
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Despite the outcry against the PTI government’s decision on fuel-related subsidies, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail once again retained the prices of the petroleum products while the present government has also failed to unveil a nation-level strategy to end political and economic uncertainty.
The PML-N government is now facing new trouble in the shape of retaining fuel subsidies as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rejected to resume talks on the continuity of the loan program until the present setup ends subsidies.
In the recent decision, the federal government announced to keep the petroleum products’ price unchanged until it holds consultations with the coalition partners to take tough economic decisions.
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On the other hand, the economic crisis has started worsening to its peak due to the subsidies but the present regime is seemingly confused to take any bold decisions to come out of the crisis.
Analysts elaborated that the PML-N, as the ruling political party, made a loss-making deal by accepting to hold key ministries following the advice of the PPP’s top politician Asif Ali Zardari as it is facing disastrous outcomes on political and economic grounds.
They said that the ruling party is also expected to face more troubles in the hands of the coalition partners including PPP, Maulana Fazlur Rehman-led Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F), Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui-led Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) and Balochistan Awami Party (PPP).
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“PPP has stakes in Sindh province, JUI-F in some parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, MQM-P only in Karachi and BAP in Balochistan province. In the upcoming consultations, the coalition partners will definitely recommend the PML-N to carry on hiking petroleum prices, however, the major dent will be borne by the ruling party by facing severe public outrage over the new wave of inflation.”
The analysts were of the view that Asif Ali Zardari has cleverly pushed PML-N to the frontline to face the public pressure if it takes any kind of tough economic decisions.