Dubai: Can Pakistan prime minister-designate Imran Khan deliver what he promised? No one is keener to know this than the citizens of Pakistan themselves.
A Dubai-based expatriate has designed a unique ‘Khanmeter’ that will track and record the new government’s performance on promises made during the recently held elections.
Salman Saeed, an entrepreneur and blogger, has posted the ‘Khanmeter’ on website www.khanmeter.com. Created on the lines of the Obameter (to track Barack Obama’s promises), Khanmeter has been designed to track promises made by Imran Khan to deliver in the first 100 days.
Saeed was optimistic about Khan’s election victory and now he is giving up his cushy life in the UAE and to return to his hometown, Islamabad, by next month. “I have been following the politics of my country and am very keen to see that this government delivers as they promised. The previous government only fulfilled 30 per cent of their manifesto promises. And most of these were related to infrastructural development for which they heavily borrowed, thereby ruining our economy,” remarked the debutante.
The website has a list of promises divided under various heads, including governance, federation, economy, agriculture, water, society, security and so on. He has then picked up the promises from Khan’s 100-day agenda. Promises made are very clear. For instance, there are important topics such as reform of criminal justice system and provision of speedy justice; bringing accountability to the centre, reform of civil service, reform of government procurement, ensuring the freedom of the press, to name a few.
Saeed told Gulf News: “The government has long-term goals and 100-day goals. I am monitoring all these. The long-term goals will be monitored on a long-term scale while the immediate focus will be on their 100-day agenda and I have downloaded this document from the PTI website. If, for instance, any discussion is initiated on any one of this topics, I will change its status to ‘work in progress’; if a law is enacted to implement this, I will then put it under the status of ‘Achieved’; if (there is) a counter law in contravention of the promise, then I will push it to the promises ‘broken’ category.”
Saeed will start measuring the promises once the government is sworn in. His website, meanwhile, has got an overwhelming response from people who are optimistic about this government and think this would be a great idea to measure the achievements in real time.
Saeed added: “That is why I intend to return to Pakistan and focus on this job more seriously. I am looking for help and cooperation from my fellow Pakistanis. I would like to invite volunteers to monitor the progress of this government.”
