Election season and sugary politics

Sindh Minister for Information and Transport, Sharjeel Inam Memon inaugurated the People’s Bus Service in Hyderabad on Saturday. According to Sharjeel Memon, the service was a gift for the citizens of Hyderabad by the leadership of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the citizens will enjoy free of cost travel during the first three days after the inauguration. The Minister vowed to launch Peoples Bus Services in Sukkar, Mirpur Khas, and others cities in the future.

The Sindh government has set a barrage of development projects along with multiple mass transit projects in the megacities of Karachi and Hyderabad over the recent few months.

Earlier, the PPP government launched a widely advertised billion-rupee waste management project in Hyderabad. After addressing all administrative snags and political issues in Karachi, the PPP leaders have shifted their energies toward Province’s second largest city, Hyderabad. As said, the PPP government intends to provide mass transit systems in other cities including Sukkar and Mirpur Khan in the coming months. According to experts, state-owned mass transit systems across the country in Peshawar, Islamabad, Lahore, Multan, and Karachi are white elephants and cause billions of rupees loss to the national exchequer annually. The experts suggest that the government should launch such initiatives through the private sector to avoid a financial loss to the country.

As the election year approaches, the parties restarted their public diplomacy work, leaders started visiting their constituencies and new development projects are being announced while old ones are being inaugurated to assure people of their public friendliness. Although, these are the tacts of south Asian politics and all political parties are using similar recipes to win public hearts, however, the leaders must avoid such sugary developments that incur long-term losses to the nation.