PITY the people of Pakistan. The government, the one the people look to in hope for some relief in their everyday lives, has been the victim of criticism and besieged by other institutions and political opponents. It is hard to imagine any government anywhere in the world being able to deliver while its very survival is so often under threat. But there’s even worse in store for the people when the government they look to in hope offers only the narrowest of self-interested ‘governance’. So it is that with a general election on the horizon, the core committee of the PPP met on Wednesday and decided to provide ‘relief’ to the people in the budget and to shake up the cabinet. The reasons are not hard to fathom. ‘Relief’ through budgetary measures is a thinly veiled reference to patronage politics while the budget shake-up will help placate allies in an unwieldy coalition. What constitutes sound and responsible policy and politics is hardly of concern.

Of course, the game of politics is such that all sides are responsible for the mess the country is in; four years of the PPP-led government can hardly be blamed for structural and systemic flaws that prevent the country and its people from fulfilling their potential. And yet, it is surely the case that the PPP has worsened the predicament for both itself and the people of Pakistan at large. Patronage politics as a tool of political survival cannot be wished away but the crudeness of it under the present government is unsettling. The focus on its base in rural Pakistan (whether through favourable agricultural pricing or social-protection schemes) and the virtual ignoring of the urban sector squeezed hard by job losses, inflation and power shortages has aggravated the economic downturn. And by recklessly adding to government borrowing without increasing revenues in any significant way, the entire population has been put at risk of an economic meltdown. If a cabinet shake-up is needed, it is to bring competent and motivated individuals in positions of power and influence. Pandering to coalition allies will only worsen the country’s predicament.