LAHORE: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif proudly boasts of many feathers in his cap, saying he had earned these against all odds during his five-year term – ranging from setting up the Daanish Schools to the Metro Bus Service (MBS). His critics, however, find him wearing just too many hats.

They are unhappy with him for working against the basic democratic principle of delegating power, and they argue this hasn’t quite been a government which will be remembered for good control over law and order and non-discriminatory policies.

In its first year in power, the PML-N government threw its weight behind the movement for restoration of judges, and it survived a 35-day governor’s rule. It rounds off its term with its energetic chief minister delivering mega projects during the election year: metro bus service in Lahore, distribution of Ujala solar lamps and laptops to outstanding students, adding to earlier achievements such as the Daanish schools and Ashiyana housing schemes.

These have gotten Mr Sharif quite a lot of attention, but his political opponents are not impressed. Instead they are eager to point out his ‘despotic’ governance style which allows him to make decisions even without taking his ‘ultra thin’ cabinet (comprising just eight ministers) into confidence. If the cabinet is not totally non-existent it is hardly seen operating. On an average, it has not been meeting even once every three months, and to top it, the chief minister has been keeping his distance from the Punjab Assembly, rarely gracing with his presence the house that he technically leads.

Prominent among the few occasions when he has engaged Punjab Assembly members is when he was in the process of creating the so-called Unification Bloc comprising MPAs from the PML-Q to secure his government. The PML-Q’s forward bloc was necessary after, in early 2011, the PPP was asked to leave the Punjab coalition. The separation from the PPP was in itself looked upon as a necessary step to truly redeem the Sharif family after their long absence from the scene until late 2007. The so-called horse-trading involving the Q league stables was a precursor to a race where the chief minister galloped unhindered and unchallenged.

A government was here to be run and with the assemblies failing to offer good enough candidates for cabinet posts, the job was assigned to task forces headed by unelected party workers. This drew flak but the problem was overcome with the sacrifice of 50 coordinators and 17 task forces following a petition in the Lahore High Court.

Stung by renegades who had changed loyalties after the 1999 coup against the PML-N and retaining his old drive, Mr Shahbaz Sharif nonchalantly carried the weight of some two dozen portfolios, including the all important home department, education and health. It took an outbreak of dengue and more than 100 deaths caused by substandard medicines at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology for the proud chief executive of the province to appoint a special assistant on health. The young doctors protesting for better perks were a nuisance, too, but while they engaged the government in long difficult negotiations, the chief minister found other causes to pursue and other issues to resolve.

He continued his search for new friends and sought to strengthen old ties. Shahbaz's government’s relations with extremist groups based – some say nursed – in Punjab will surely be a moot point during the coming election campaign, as would be its failure to purge the province of crime. The Punjab government has been maligned for allegedly seeking to use Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, a new name for the banned Sipahe Sahaba, in its election campaigns in different by-polls. The SSP offshoot Lashkar-i-Jhangvi is believed to be involved in the wave of lethal attacks on Shia community in recent days.

The attacks on minorities are an issue, for the members of minorities to be disturbed about and for PML-N’s opponents to gain political mileage out of. Gojra in 2009 is still fresh in people’s memory and closer to the seat of power, bang in the heart of Lahore, Christian homes have just been attacked, because the administration was not quick enough to react to the developing danger. In the background of Gojra and Shanti Nagar in 1996 Badami Bagh makes people establish a link between attacks on minorities and the PML-N’s presence in power.

The PML-Q’s minority wing claims that there have been at least eight instances in recent times where Christian and Hindu properties have either been forcefully occupied or an attempt has been made to occupy them. These lands, the Q-Leaguers say, are located in Lahore, Kasur, Faisalabad, Wazirabad and Jhang. The government had on Sept 30, 2011, also tried to bring all the minority properties under a commission through a piece of legislation. But the move was deferred on resistance in the provincial assembly.

Development projects

The metro bus project approximately worth Rs30 billion met with criticism from opponents from day one. The more reasonable objections said it was not a priority issue for Lahore, let alone the whole of Punjab, which had been crying out for greater attention from the Lahorite rulers. Also, narrowing it down to the technicalities of the project itself, it was said the fence-bound 27-km-long bus track divided the metropolis into two, choking traffic at intersections along the route as well as tarnishing the historical city’s landscape.

As the cost of the bus system increased with time, more eyebrows were raised and the extra-long bus’s reputation as a monster out to gobble up precious resources became a topic of hot discussion. The government, however, proceeded unperturbed, in true Shahbaz style of a man who knew his business. The criticism was brushed aside: the bus system was much cheaper – nine times cheaper according to some official claims – than the underground tube, the likes of which Lahore had been promised by Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, the chief renegade among the PML-N group of 1999, who had gone on for some years to occupy the Lahore throne in the absence of the Sharifs.

The bus has brought the government applause from a lot of commuters, who find themselves fortunate to be using this world-class service that took only 11 months in shaping up. Consequently, it is no surprise that the PML-N supporters flaunt the red of the MBS as a landmark achievement of their government. N-League chief Nawaz Sharif says even the party’s opponents will eventually realise the bus system’s worth as they (grudgingly) did in the case of the Lahore-Islamabad Motorway which was completed in 1998.

Ashiyana housing scheme for the low-income people in 16 districts is identified as yet another milestone achieved by the current government. The townships are well equipped with civic amenities. After computer balloting those who are selected are required to pay the cost in easy installments. There is a 10 per cent quota for widows, orphans, the disabled and families of martyrs. The opposition, of course, rejects the scheme. In the words of ex-law minister Babar Awan, it is a move to favour property dealers.

Education

At the time of assuming charge of the province, Shahbaz had announced imposing an education emergency to overcome illiteracy. A school chain named Daanish, a first-class educational facility for the children of the ‘have-nots’ was set up. The schools are being set up -- nine are operational already -- in remote areas starting with southern Punjab districts.

Prior to the metro bus, Shahbaz was fond of mentioning this pet project of his everywhere he went. He would argue that the schools, each costing around Rs1000 million, would prevent the younger generation from falling prey to extremists in the poverty-hit Seraiki belt.

Enter the critics who say the project will further divide the education system. They say that while a large number of the ‘ordinary’ state-run schools are devoid of basic facilities and teaching staff the government is eager on providing a handful of the institutions with state-of-the-art facilities. This appears a case of discrimination to many Daanish opponents who also say that the government faltered on the promise of a right to education law although a commission formed by it has submitted its suggestions a long time ago.

An endowment fund with a sum of Rs2 billion was formed to help the needy but brilliant students. The fund has since grown to Rs10 billion and at least 50,000 students are being offered scholarships. Some 72,000 educators were recruited -- on merit, pending a Transparency International Pakistan inspection and if the opposition’s silence on it is a guide to go by.

The distribution of some 200,000 laptops and as many solar lamps to the students of colleges and universities did invite censure from the opponents. The two projects were termed an attempt to buy votes of the younger generation in the wake of the growing popularity of Imran Khan. However, invited to judge it by the Punjab government,

Transparency International Pakistan cleared both the programmes as corruption free.

The government also set up IT labs in over 4,000 schools but economic experts like ex-Senator Prof Khurshid Ahmed of the Jamaat-i-Islami say a laptop scheme seems frivolous at a time when the infrastructure of primary education in the province is on the verge of collapse.

Food

The government’s Sasti Roti project to provide subsidised food to the poor backfired badly. The idea was pioneered by Imran Khan’s PTI when it opened a couple of tandoors to provide roti at Rs2. The government had to quietly drop this ‘flagship’ scheme of it within two years as it consumed around Rs22 billion amid allegations of corruption and embezzlements.

There was also a Food Stamp Scheme, which countered the federal government’s Benazir Income Support Programme. It was wrapped up six months after its launch.