Thursday, January 2, 2014

Youth Business Loan

The announcement of Prime Minister Youth Business Loan program was not only surprising, but also daring. In the presence of rulings of the Supreme Court about the procedure to be adopted and conditions to be met about similar appointments, the appointment of prime minister's daughter as the Head of the program shows the growing confidence of Mr. Nawaz Sharif either in himself or in the apex court under a new chief justice. While the nomenclature of the program and the name of its head speak loudly about the political nature of the program, banks have been asked to finance it. The announcement was completely silent about the qualification, experience and business acumen of the head of the program indicating that there was nothing worth mentioning. It appears that the prime minister wants to give the much needed experience to her daughter now to fill that void and prepare her for bigger appointments in the future.  Many people thought that the pronouncements of Imran Khan about the royal nature of the family  was a political ploy, but Sharifs are bent upon proving him right.  Earlier Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif took the lead in  appointing  his son as the head of a co-ordination committee for facilitating government affairs in Punjab, ignoring very senior party members.

Tasneem Hameed