ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Sunday launched its first 100 days agenda in Islamabad.
The agenda, created by the Policy Unit of PTI’s Election Management Cell (EMC), outlines a set of commitments for the party to start working on within the first 100 days of assuming office.
Talking to the media, the Head of EMC Shahzad Arbab said “Pakistan is at a critical stage of development. We are creating this 100 Days Agenda so that it will set the course of direction for Pakistan for the next five years.”
In his key note address, the Chairman PTI Imran Khan spoke at length giving three key messages.
His first message was to explain to the audience the purpose of coming up with a 100 day agenda. After decades of misrule, Pakistan needed a reset in how it was governed, that Imran Khan was determined to give. This was best done in the first 100 days of a new government, because this is when voters would allow and want you to take the most difficult decisions. He was hopeful that after 100 days, enough would have been done to change the direction of progress of the country.
In his second message, Imran also spoke about a number of key differences between a PTI administration and that of PPP and the PML-N. Most importantly, the commitment that PTI had to instituting merit in organisations was unique – in particular in the bureaucracy, which is the delivery engine of government. PTI had proven this by depoliticizing the police in KPK, through its system of local government, and through the merit based recruitment of teachers in schools. He also spoke about how is PTI better equipped to fix the economy and institutions. We had proof, he said, that if there is trust in government, people will voluntary come into the tax net. The best example of this was how Imran himself was able to raise funding for Shaukat Khanum every year, to bridge a 6-billion-rupee annual deficit. Finally, he also spoke about bringing in investment and capability into the country, by tapping into the pool of 6 million overseas Pakistanis, who would both bring investment and capability into the country.
In his third major message, Imran talked about the experience and capability the PTI had gained through five years of government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and how this would help his team run the country in a much better way than they could have five years ago. In five years, PTI had made major shifts in the police, education, health, local government, and the environment, through the billion-tree tsunami. However, PTI had also learned about how to navigate through the resistance to reform, how to work with the bureaucracy, how to overcome resistance such as they had with the courts.
Imran thanked in particular the leadership of the Election Management Cell including former Chief Secretary Shehzad Arbab who heads the cell, and Taimur Khan Jhagra, former Partner at consulting firm McKinsey, who heads the Policy Unit that had come up with the 100 days agenda. He felt that because they had invested in top talent, PTI was more prepared than ever before for election.
The first 100 days agenda comprises six themes, and each theme consists of a set of commitments that the new PTI government will start working on, and show visible progress, within the first 100 days of Imran Khan taking charge.
The six themes are as follows:
1) Transforming Governance, where PTI made commitments to bringing accountability to the centre of government, depoliticizing police, replicating local government reform, transforming access to justice, and reforming the bureaucracy.
2) Strengthen the Federation, where PTI made commitments to expedite the merger of FATA, create a South Punjab Province, put in place a Karachi development plan, rehabilitate Balochistan, and put in place a special poverty alleviation programme from the poorest districts in each province.
3) Revitalize Economic Growth, where PTI made commitments to create 10 million jobs, revive manufacturing, rapidly grow SME sector, facilitate the private sector to build 5 million houses, boost tourism, reform the tax administration, improve Pakistan’s Doing Business rankings to top 100, transform State-Owned-Enterprises, fix Pakistan’s energy challenge, make CPEC a game changer and enhance access to finance.
4) Uplift Agriculture and Conserve Water, where PTI made commitments to impose an Agriculture Emergency to increase farmer profitability, improve access to finance for farmers, transform agriculture produce markets, incentivize value-addition, revamp livestock sector, upgrade and implement the National Water Policy.
5) Revolutionize Social Services, including transforming education and health, putting in place a development programme for women, expanding the social safety net, providing clean drinking water and initiating a 10 billion tree tsunami.
6) Ensure Pakistan’s National Security, where PTI made commitments to update and expand institutional structure of Foreign Ministry, increase Pakistan’s regional and global relevance, leverage on foreign policy to strengthen the economy, form a National Security Organisation and enhance internal security.
Work on the first 100 days agenda was led by the Head of the Policy Unit Taimur Khan Jhagra within the EMC, and a former Partner at global consulting firm McKinsey.
“This is not just a list of commitments. Behind each of these is a plan of action that is continuously being refined and detailed, because that is the key to implementation,” said Taimur. The first 100 days agenda was created as a result of several rounds of engagement and problem solving with the senior PTI leadership team, and also involved significant input from leading sector experts from across Pakistan.
