LAHORE - Prime Minister Imran Khan during his one-day visit to the Punjab metropolis on Saturday again reposed his full confidence in Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, burying all speculations about a change many known and unknown aspirants for the coveted post were trying to bring about.

“Those aspiring to replace Mr Buzdar should wait for the next four years,” the prime minister has been quoted as saying at a meeting here.

The day on which the country’s chief executive again put his weight behind Mr Buzdar reports of a large scale reshuffle of bureaucracy had been flashed.

This means that now the right man has been given the right job. Without any prevarications there’s need to solve people’s problems very efficiently, with a new approach. The Punjab chief minister will have to outperform all his predecessors as the future of the ruling PTI depends more on him compared to anybody else.

The reason is that Punjab is the biggest province and a party that wins this province is in a position to come to power at the Centre even if its performance in other federating units is not satisfactory.

It will not be wrong to say that even the return of Mr Imran Khan to power will be linked to the Punjab CM’s performance.

Future of PTI depends more on Buzdar’s performance

The present situation can be likened to a plane that has completed taxiing and is ready to take off.

In other words now the PTI leadership will have to stop cursing the previous governments for their failures to solve the multiple problems or the mess they are frequently accused of having left behind. The Punjab government will have to start from zero and address problems of people belonging to all walks of life.

For this purpose he should devise a new mechanism, new strategy.

He may consider visiting all district headquarters according to a schedule, hold meetings with all elected representatives - MNAs and MPAs belonging to the ruling party or opposition- discuss with them problems of their respective constituencies. These problems should be thoroughly examined by relevant government experts and then priorities should be set for their solution according to the magnitude of the available resources. Timeline can also be set for the completion of the projects.

Such an approach should bring about a qualitative change in the province. An indiscriminate and generous attitude towards the opposition legislators will certainly add to the popularity of the ruling PTI and create harmonious environment.

Superfluous to point out that most of the PTI leaders are inexperienced and are not capable enough of solving the serious problems facing the country. The experienced hands of the opposition parties may be helpful in expediting the pace of projects identified through a consultative process.

The government must bear in mind that the mere rhetoric that efforts are being made to promote exports, control current account deficit, bring down prices, set up new projects as could create more jobs cannot satisfy people. They may be relevant to the government or people of certain classes but cannot feed the empty stomachs.

For a common man if the prices of essential items are made affordable, educating children even at prestigious institutions is within reach, health facilities are available, daily income is enough to pay all bills and the justice system is delivering then for them it hardly matters who is in power or who was defeated in the elections. Any party that pays attention to these problems will have more chances of returning to power.