Except for a few achievements, the five-year rule of Pakistan People’s Party was a tale of horrifying failures which have virtually brought the country to the brink of financial and administrative collapse.

The so-called first ‘full term’ of a ‘democratic government’ in country’s history – the major achievement that PPP-led coalition government’s leadership boasts about – was fraught with mismanagement, and criminal negligence on issues of national importance.Over these years, PPP leadership remained preoccupied with keeping its rule intact for which it played in the hands of its junior coalition partners MQM, ANP and PML-Q and other pressure groups from time to time.Constitutional reforms and other achievementsThe most shining achievement of the ruling coalition was the removal of anomalies from the constitution and its restoration to almost to its original shape of 1973.

Under the 18th Constitutional Amendment the government has given much demanded provincial autonomy to the provinces by abolishing the Concurrent List from the constitution.Another major achievement was unanimous passage of the 7th National Finance Commission Award, which was long overdue. This step gave new strength to the federation.PPP’s claim of pursuance of ‘policy of reconciliation’ also hold water as its being without even simple majority in the National Assembly and at times being at verge of collapse, the PPP not marched toward completion of its government tenure but also passed a considerable number of pieces of legislation with consensus.

Moreover, the claim that PPP leadership started a healthy tradition by shunning politics of victimisation and vendetta is also largely true. It rightly claims that no case against political opponents was framed during its current term in power.PPP’s argument that it assumed power when the country’s economy was in shambles and the whole world was in the grip of a huge financial crisis is true. But its claim that it did as much for the welfare of the masses as it could by remaining within its economic limitation, can be disputed.

They also recount the unprecedented floods devastations in 2010 and massive rains in 2011, which had inundated most parts of Punjab and Sindh, and say they did not roll back their economic reforms and welfare agenda despite these challenges and refer to various programmes launched for the poor like Benazir Income Support Programme and Pakistan Baitul Maal.They claimed that following the deletion of Concurrent List from the Constitution and devolution of over a dozen federal ministries to provinces, the funds at the disposal of federal government had reduced considerably but even then the government had continued with its economic reforms agenda.Above all, the PPP along with its coalition partners fully supported the Armed Forces of the country to turn the tide on the terrorists as the menace of terrorism has been controlled to a great extent.

Swat Operation was the perfect example of it where both the Army and political elite had flushed out the militants and restored peace and order in the area.Energy crisisCountry has been facing acute shortage of energy and the crisis went on compounding during the PPP rule. The government is right in their contention that it was a legacy of the Musharraf era, but now at the culmination of their mandated constitutional term one could find no serious effort on part of the ruling alliance to come up with either short or long term solution to the problem.

The measures taken by the government to overcome the problem were either ill-planned or were littered with corruption so the end result was worsening of the situation and right now the whole nation is facing acute shortage of not only electricity but of gas as well. The power situation can be assessed from the fact that even now in winter when usually the electricity supply would remain normal, we are experiencing unscheduled loadshedding.Mismanagement and corruptionThe mishandling of the state run institutions and autonomous corporations like PIA, Steel Mills, Railways and others had added to the financial woes of the government.

On all the top slots in these major corporations the government appointed their blue-eyed people who ruined these entities and public money kept on bleeding profusely.The government turned a blind eye to the rampant corruption going on in the state-owned corporations and departments, and that was why they neither showed interest in strengthening the National Accountability Bureau nor did they brought new accountability law. Similarly, an ill-planned devolution of power to the provinces created quite serious problems in the sectors of education, health and agriculture.

Critics say that as per the statistics of World Bank and IMF the poverty had increased in the country and millions of middle and lower middle class people had slipped down the poverty line. Moreover, as per the international statistics, the incumbent government took record loans from local banks while the overall loans of the country had doubled in just four and a half years rule of PPP..