Pakistan has never suffered from a shortage of foundation stones. What it has lacked, rather more painfully, is the prosaic second half of government. For lack of a better phrase: our leaders have lacked the will to finish what they start.

Between headline-generating announcements and their execution, our public projects have traditionally travelled through the bureaucratic wilderness of revised costs, extended deadlines and ceremonial reassurances. This is why Mohsin Naqvi’s stewardship of Islamabad deserves attention for something more consequential than the concrete now visible across the capital. He has attempted to change the unit by which government is judged: from intention to delivery, and from years to days.

The Serena Chowk project – now Jinnah Square – was completed in 72 days despite rock excavation, groundwater and an expanded scope of work. Three underpasses and connecting roads reorganised one of the capital’s most awkward junctions, where traffic from Constitution Avenue, the Diplomatic Enclave, Srinagar Highway and Murree Road routinely converged. The project record also notes extensive landscaping and plantation around the interchange. Independent reporting confirmed both the 72-day completion and the Rs4.2bn project cost.

Governments will always be judged on grand questions of politics and policy. But states also earn legitimacy in smaller denominations.Pakistan regional tours

Governments will always be judged on grand questions of politics and policy. But states also earn legitimacy in smaller denominations.

Then came the Recep Tayyip Erdogan Interchange at Jinnah Avenue and Agha Shahi Avenue. Its underpass was completed in 42 days, and the complete........

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