ISLAMABAD - Except for a few achievements, the five-year rule of Pakistan People’s Party was

a tale of horrifying failures which have virtually brought the country to the brink of financial and
administrative collapse.The so-called first ‘full term’ of a ‘democratic government’ in country’s
history – the major achievement that PPP-led coalition government’s leadership boasts about –
was fraught with mismanagement, and criminal negligence on issues of national
importance.Over these years, PPP leadership remained preoccupied with keeping its rule intact
for which it played in the hands of its junior coalition partners MQM, ANP and PML-Q and other
pressure groups from time to time.Constitutional reforms and other achievementsThe most
shining achievement of the ruling coalition was the removal of anomalies from the constitution
and its restoration to almost to its original shape of 1973. Under the 18th Constitutional
Amendment the government has given much demanded provincial autonomy to the provinces
by abolishing the Concurrent List from the constitution.Another major achievement was
unanimous passage of the 7th National Finance Commission Award, which was long overdue.
This step gave new strength to the federation.PPP’s claim of pursuance of ‘policy of
reconciliation’ also hold water as its being without even simple majority in the National Assembly
and at times being at verge of collapse, the PPP not marched toward completion of its
government tenure but also passed a considerable number of pieces of legislation with
consensus.Moreover, the claim that PPP leadership started a healthy tradition by shunning
politics of victimisation and vendetta is also largely true. It rightly claims that no case against
political opponents was framed during its current term in power.PPP’s argument that it assumed
power when the country’s economy was in shambles and the whole world was in the grip of a
huge financial crisis is true. But its claim that it did as much for the welfare of the masses as it
could by remaining within its economic limitation, can be disputed.They also recount the
unprecedented floods devastations in 2010 and massive rains in 2011, which had inundated
most parts of Punjab and Sindh, and say they did not roll back their economic reforms and
welfare agenda despite these challenges and refer to various programmes launched for the
poor like Benazir Income Support Programme and Pakistan Baitul Maal.They claimed that
following the deletion of Concurrent List from the Constitution and devolution of over a dozen
federal ministries to provinces, the funds at the disposal of federal government had reduced
considerably but even then the government had continued with its economic reforms
agenda.Above all, the PPP along with its coalition partners fully supported the Armed Forces of
the country to turn the tide on the terrorists as the menace of terrorism has been controlled to a
great extent. Swat Operation was the perfect example of it where both the Army and political
elite had flushed out the militants and restored peace and order in the area.Energy crisisCountry
has been facing acute shortage of energy and the crisis went on compounding during the PPP
rule. The government is right in their contention that it was a legacy of the Musharraf era, but
now at the culmination of their mandated constitutional term one could find no serious effort on
part of the ruling alliance to come up with either short or long term solution to the problem.The
measures taken by the government to overcome the problem were either ill-planned or were
littered with corruption so the end result was worsening of the situation and right now the whole
nation is facing acute shortage of not only electricity but of gas as well. The power situation can
be assessed from the fact that even now in winter when usually the electricity supply would
remain normal, we are experiencing unscheduled loadshedding.Mismanagement and
corruptionThe mishandling of the state run institutions and autonomous corporations like PIA,
Steel Mills, Railways and others had added to the financial woes of the government. On all the
top slots in these major corporations the government appointed their blue-eyed people who
ruined these entities and public money kept on bleeding profusely.The government turned a
blind eye to the rampant corruption going on in the state-owned corporations and departments,
and that was why they neither showed interest in strengthening the National Accountability
Bureau nor did they brought new accountability law. Similarly, an ill-planned devolution of power
to the provinces created quite serious problems in the sectors of education, health and
agriculture.Critics say that as per the statistics of World Bank and IMF the poverty had
increased in the country and millions of middle and lower middle class people had slipped down
the poverty line. Moreover, as per the international statistics, the incumbent government took
record loans from local banks while the overall loans of the country had doubled in just four and
a half years rule of PPP..