LAHORE - As the ruling PTI is about to complete its first 100 days in power by month’s end, it seems stressed in the struggle to establish its political ascendancy, particularly in Punjab.  

Its Punjab leadership is still reeling in shock from the defiant bureaucracy, a sign of tempestuous journey ahead. Frequent reports of backbench rebellions from far and near are posing a big challenge to the political authority.

Assuming that the PTI government stood for de-politicisation of bureaucracy, administrative heads of some districts including Rajanpur, Pakpattan, Chakwal and Gujranwala tried to assert independence, but only to know that change cannot come overnight. The incumbent government now believes that things should change through a process of evolution.

But, it all happened in a situation when different stakeholders in power were engaged in a tug-of-war to have greater sway over bureaucracy. Though the situation has changed a lot by now, but at least four power centers-the chief minister, the governor, Punjab Assembly speaker and the senior minister- were visible in Punjab’s capital until weeks back. 

Also, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s frequent visits to the provincial capital for close interactions with the chief minister and his cabinet were seen as an attempt to control Punjab by proxy.

So far, the Punjab government has nothing to celebrate about its accomplishments. It is not yet out of the herculean task of placing the right officers at the right place. 

A one-size-fits-all approach to its so-called reforms’ agenda seems to have backfired at least in the first 100 days. It has now realized that KP model of reforms in local bodies system, police, health and education sectors does not quite fit in with the political environment in Punjab province. 

The much-hyped police reforms have been placed under the rug for the time being. Former KP IG Nasir Durrani was shown the door in the first two weeks as he wanted to have fast-track changes in the Punjab police. Sources privy to his resignation as chief minister’s adviser say that Durrani had desired to revoke the Police Order 2002 forthwith and its replacement with a new police law through an ordinance. In the beginning, he was tasked to head a police reforms commission and recommend measures to transform the highly politicised Punjab police into a professional force devoid of political influence and having operational autonomy. Durrani was chosen for this job by none else but Prime Minister Imran Khan who wanted him to replicate the KP model of police reforms in Punjab also.

All efforts to introduce a uniform local bodies’ system in Punjab and KP have ended in smoke. There is no clue of its being formulated in the near future. Every time a draft law is presented to the prime minister for approval, it is rejected for one reason or another to accommodate more changes.

On the creation of south Punjab province, little headway has been made. No practical steps have been taken as yet except formation of an executive council to do the spadework, a tedious task which may take many months to complete. 

The PTI government had also established a working group headed by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi for making of the new province on administrative grounds. Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and Federal Minister Khusro Bakhtiar were also part of this arrangement, but we never heard any meeting taking place on this forum.

The Punjab cabinet in its first meeting held on September 8 had also approved formulation of policies on water resources, health and education reforms, clean drinking water, tourism industry, agriculture reforms and construction of five million houses in the first 100 days. The cabinet had also approved constitution of a steering committee on the implementation of 100-day programme under Senior Minister Aleem Khan. It also gave approval for unification of two departments of the health and formed a committee headed by Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid to make recommendations in this regard. Approval was also accorded to resource mobilization committee to increase financial resources of the province.

With only one week remaining in the 100 days deadline, the government is yet to come up with any concrete measures to materialize its commitments made in the first cabinet meeting.