The fact that Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan had to show dissatisfaction over the report submitted by the fact-finding committee regarding the gas crisis in the country shows the kind of input that the government gets from such committees. There is a countrywide crisis going on and the people appointed to find out who is responsible for the problem are not performing their duty right. This not only delays the process of accountability but also allows the space for people to be affected for a longer duration. The committees that the government relies on for such work need to have a performance review to analyse how beneficial their input is because they get paid from the taxpayer’s money and in that case, there is no space for a sluggish attitude.
This is usually the problem in the bureaucratic setup of Pakistan which guarantees job security. If performance reviews are not conducted and jobs are guaranteed regardless of tangible work being done, the output is always stagnation. Our bureaucracy is also plagued by this problem and a cleansing of the setup is required. Job security and promotions should only depend on how well a person can perform their duties and the adaptation to the technological advancements and their use in solving the problems affecting the country.
The gas crisis affects the common man along with the industrial set up. This has become a cause of concern that in the summers the masses face an acute shortage of electricity and in the winters, there is a shortage of gas supply. And the problem is not restricted to that. The distribution of gas itself is also a very controversial topic because most of the gas being produced is being consumed by the province of Punjab. It is high time that there is an equal distribution of resources. We already saw that in the case of Balochistan, the coalition party is aggrieved over the lack of developmental projects being undertaken in the province as a result of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The shortage of basic necessities and their unequal distribution is a matter which needs to be addressed and if the investigative teams are not performing their duties right, the masses are bound to get agitated. The new report regarding the crisis needs to be devised as soon as possible so that the government can take action right away.