This is Nawaz Shareef’s third tenure as a Prime Minister of Pakistan and look like he has gained very little in respect to the political maturity, international affairs awareness and leadership vision. In this short blogs i will try to highlight few of his biggest blunders according to my opinion and will try to explain what he did wrong.

Change of Route of Pak-China Economic Corridor

Pak-China Economic Corridor is one of the most forward looking economic project of Nawaz Shareef’s current tenure. In a sense i feel its the need of the hour not only for economy of Pakistan but its security stability and unity. Road not only bring traffic but also economic activity, prosperity to the land and also reduce hatred and terrorism. According to the original plan the economic corridor was suppose to go through Balochistan and KPK into the china. Currently all Pakistan’s infrastructure is present on the eastern side and this economic corridor will provide much needed infrastructure development on the western side. Western side is also the side troubled with terrorism and sense of depravity and this development will increase the harmony and reduce the terrorism.

But recently PML-N decided to change the route and take it through Lahore. Lahore already is over populous and full of infrastructure and this would have created more chaos and congestion to the over crowded city.

Then the mistake over the mistake was the statement they give for the change of route that the security was lacking. There are two problems with this statement. Is PML-N not in government? do they not plan to improve the security? and secondly are the not giving the message that only Punjab is safe.? so are they acknowledging that their government has failed in improving security and have no plan to improve the security.

Thirdly this project is multi billion rather trillion ruppee project once the road is finalized you cant just pick it up and take it somewhere else so one excuse should not over shadow other important gains like giving the strategic depth, development of the western side, improvement of the harmony among people by improving travelling. opening new routes. enabling the development of the under developed areas and so many more benefits.

Cyber Security Bill

Cyber Security Bill is also one of the high level blunder. This is one of the most ill concived bill in which freedom of speech is restricted and this will give rise to more anti-government sentiments. Social Media was one of the few places where government managed to get some support against the dharna politics of Imran Khan Now they are trying to block it and it will hurt them more in the future then gaining them anything in the present. Most form of the criticism is blocked according to this bill.

I am not against having some restrictions but according to the bill even making political cartoons is a crime. The other issue is the government has not given his view. If they have all these points in the bill for some specific reason then they should commnicate to the masses. But unfortunately tnawaz shareef lack of democratic views and keeping quiet s hurting more than serving him

Enactment of Military Courts 

This is one of the biggest blunder of internal politics. The PML-N enactment of military courts is a message that government is incapable and cannot fix the judicial system of the country. If we go by this logic then the government should not criticize dictatorship or dictators because they also believe that democratic system has not produced results for Pakistan and therefore dictators should be allowed to the govern Pakistan. There government says that democracy should be given time to strengthen then why not give time and direction and make effort to fix the judicial system of Pakistan also to make it more effective.?

Failure to understand Sindh

Although federal government is considered to be representative of all Pakistan and PML-N also waste no time in saying that it got votes and seats in all provinces o the Pakistan but its hidden thing that PML-N is highly disliked by people of Karachi in unanimity. Looking at various steps of the ruling party PML-N it come as no surprise.

Firstly they have highly incapable president of Sindh PML-N. A president of sindh PML-N can not win his own seat even a provincial seat. He has no backing plus he is notorious. Secondly the the mentality of Karachi voter is highly different then the thinking of Punjabi voter.

Secondly just before the election PML-N included candidates or made alliances with the parties who were notorious and with little support on the ground. After these parties lost they again split  from PML-N. So instead of giving exposure to some of their own capable candidate they relied on external unreliable support. Then PML-N Sindh has no voice and even when rarely they make a statement they make a stupid one.

Lack of Foreign Minister

May be in its effort to keep the government size manageable PML-N federal government tried to restrict the number of ministers. But not appointing a dedicated Foreign Minister PML-N just shows that either they are incapable of understanding foreign affairs. ? or they lack a good personality to handle foreign affairs or foreign affairs matters are not in their control. All three meanings shows a blunder and nothing else on PML-N part

They also have some of the worst ministers in IT. Even water and power minister have failed to end load shedding or give a clear vision.

Large delays in Appointing on Key Posts

Nawaz Shareef seems to be incapable of making a decision. Number of key bureaucratic and head of departments post which required agreement with opposition leader like chairman NAB takes a long long time in getting appointment. They get appointed in the end because of strict warnings from the Supreme Court Judges. When a person is incapable of simply appointing key positions with honest and well reputed people in timely fashion then it leaves a big question mark on his decision making skills.

Development of Lahore Karachi Motorway

I am always pro infrastructure projects. but there has to be limit to the amount of such projects especially if its destroying your most fertile land and giving no benefit at all. There are now number of links from Lahore to Multan so developing yet another road from Lahore to Multan for Lahore Karachi motorway is simply like cutting your limb. Pakistan already is facing heaving reduction in agricultural land. We just need to develop the missing roads between Lahore Karachi and should use the existing infrastructure as much as possible.

Yemen Affair:

Without having a dedicated foreign minister its no surprise that PML-N made number of blunders on Yemen Affair. Yemen affair has number of significance. Our trusted friend Saudi Arabia first time asked for help. Nawaz Shareef agreed to provide this help. Suddenly media started maligning campaign against this issue, openly accusing Nawaz Shareef under personal gains helping Saudi Arabia without realizing that our existence is largely thanks to Saudi Arabia help which have never shied from helping us in our time of trouble.

Blunder 1: Government gives no directives to media not malign our trusted friend. (When Musharraf sent NS to Saudi Arabia under the deal he directed media not malign Saudi Arabia in this affair)

Blunder 2: Under pressure from Media and probably Army, Nawaz shareef tried to back track from its commitment and for this calls a joint session. This joint session started talking foul about Saudi Arabia. It is Saudi that helped us when we were put under economic sanctions and its Saudia that has helped monetarily whenever we asked. The joint session speakers started speaking in favor of Iran who deliberately tried to roll back our nuclear program by informing about our help to Iran. Dr. Abdul Qadeer father of Pakistan nuclear capability is penalized because of Iran’s effort.

Nawaz Shareef should have called a meeting with the parliamentary leaders and should have given them directives not to use any foul languages against our trusted Saudi friends

Nawaz Shareef should atleast have told his own party members that they should not take a position against Saudi Arabia.

Blunder 3: Iran FM visited Pakistan and Saudi Arabia also announced to send its representative to Pakistan.. PM after meeting the Iranian FM passes resolution in the join session regarding Yemen conflict which sound n favor or Iranian point of view before even the meeting with the Saudi delegation is held. So a message is sent to our friend that dont come we have already accepted Iran point of view. A country which has number of times violated our sovereignty and killed our soldiers. What a stupid message to give our friend Saudi Arabia.

Blunder 4: When our friends gave a well deserved harsh response to our parliamentary resolution then our Interior Minister who is mostly missing and never found giving a statement on matters related to interior minister gave an even more damaging response. Come on cant the Prime Minister tell his minister to shut up instead of burning to ashes our friendship with the most loyal friends.

Blunder 5: When some section of media highlighted the contribution of Saudi Arabia after our nuclear blast, PML-N finance minister gave a statement in denial of those gifts and concessions and contribution. So now we showed to our friend that we are one undeserving and inconsiderate friend.

Just to wrap up. I feel that Nawaz Shareef is far from the leader the Pakistan needs at this time. His decision making leaves a lot to be desired. He lacks total understanding of foreign affairs. His political skills and political sense are very weak and incapable of developing further. This may turn out to be the bigger threat for PML-N then any other party including PTI