The Government felt it had done the job by having brought the 13^th amendment against terrorism. The Supreme Court's proceedings however, indicated that certain clauses of the said amendment were against the basic rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Government, after its retreat in its useless row with the judiciary, seems getting "wiser" with every day passing. Like the decision that the Premier will appear in person before the Supreme Court in the contempt case, the government has also shown its "willingness" to suitably amend the 13th amendment which in fact, had turned Pakistan into a police state. Thus, the ambitions for totalitarian control and amassing power in the body of a single person have further receded Four Union Texas' (U.S.) Official were gunned down in Karachi on November 12, the same day when the Supreme Court of Pakistan heard petitions questioning the legal and constitutional position of the Anti-Terrorist Act. The poor conception and then indecisiveness signaled through such government actions, appear to have encouraged the terrorists or may be, the terrorists were sure the act was not aiming at them in the first place, otherwise what is the explanation in the killing of Iranians, the Binori Town incident and now the Americans?

The haste will certainly be made waste as government has adopted a multi-pronged warpath against every department and institution. Policies are announced only to be denounced at a later stage. Reviving economy and maintaining law and order is the promise the Nawaz administration made when it come to power, but are still miles away even from proving themselves good managers at the administrative affairs.

Anybody can see a sequence in failures and withdrawals from what had been started or even promised. Take debt retirement programme for example, the most ambitious and extra publicized scheme to collect palms to off load the debt burden. After hectic activity, the government reports to have collected a sum of Rs.13 billion or so, that included around Rs.11.0 billion new debt at a much higher interest rate. That effort was also a metaphor in ad hoc remedies and failed as timely predicted by experts. Here the government was badly defeated by traders and manufacturers who were expected to contribute generously — the net result however was sheer disappointment.

Government then announced at various time intervals, six financial packages to revive the economy. These packages lacked coordinated efforts amongst themselves and could not come up to the expectation of rotating the industrial wheel. If these packages were to have some good results in future, the rupee devaluation destroyed all that. The logic for the massive cut in the rupee value by 8.71 percent was traditional and could not convince the business community. Thus rupee devaluation only conveyed the message that there was no long-term or short-term planning at the top level.

The bad effects of devaluation were yet under discussion when the government decided to try its muscles against the judiciary. The Chief Justice had demanded appointment of the five High Court judges in the Supreme Court. The government did not respond timely and instead made it an occasion to overpower the judiciary like it had done in case of the presidency. The constitutional and legal crisis engulfed the whole nation for more than two and a half months. It was all immature rather childish that government let loose on judiciary. Towards the end the Prime Minister had to announce to appoint the judges according to the recommendations of the Chief Justice. The tussle is yet not over, as the contempt and plot cases are still before the Supreme Court. The Prime Minister is appearing in person as ordered by the Court, but if he did not tender unconditional apology things could take any shape, leading to in house change, if not some bigger reshuffling.

The stalwarts of the government, under the leadership of Mr. Nawaz Sharif were outspoken and loudly promising to hold the years-awaited census in October last. The nation was perplexed to listen to lame excuses when holding of the census was deferred. No logical explanation was given. The poor decision-making on the part of government reminds us of Shakespear's King Lear who appears after the climax and announces his surrender to death by simply stating that "nothing comes of nothing." The Lears of this government are chanting the same slogan in rather a 'fashionable' manner.

Now, a word about the "downsizing." The government blamed PPP for employing more than was needed. It decided to cut the number of officials in the departments, corporations and banks to make the administration manageable and financially viable. After, so much hue and cry, going on for months, the federal cabinet decided to shelve downsizing in the central government. In a surprise move, the National Assembly passed a motion directing the government to take necessary steps to provide the masses "employment opportunities." All evidence is that the government intended to "rightsize" only those banks and institutions, which were to be privatized. With this bad intention, the result of the scheme could not be different.

This whole mess of affairs indicates that adhocism prevails in all spheres at top level. Policy-making is nowhere at any stage. Petty desires ambitions and slogans loom large in the ruling circles and kuchehris are held to provide the people some sense of "relief." The government has lost vision, if there was any, boasting all the time of its heavy mandate. Rhetoric seems the name of the game. Government has only lost track of its manifesto. It will be advisable for the government to cool down temperament so that long-term policies and short-term measures could be chalked out with a clear vision. So far, it has given the look of a very bad governance.