PM again thinks of improving governance

ISLAMABAD: Jolted by the recent unprecedented petrol crisis in the history of Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif intends to have a team of experts around him to avoid similar embarrassments in the future.
A government source said the prime minister wants a team of experts around him at the PM Office besides taking some other administrative measures to improve governance. However, it is not clear if the premier would be able to do this as in the past too he had resolved to do a lot but ended up in an inactive mode.
The source claimed that the petroleum crisis had jolted the government and got the prime minister upset. It is said that during the recent days, there has been a lot of in-house criticism within the government and the PML-N circles following which the premier decided to take some administrative measures to improve governance.
“You would see a change sooner than later,” a cabinet member told The News, adding that the government’s remaining tenure would be different from the last 20 months. When asked if the prime minister would change his own style of governance, he said, “The premier is very upset now.”
The source indicated that a major change would be witnessed at the PM Office in the near future while the premier is also being advised to get rid of inefficient and ineffective ministers besides implementing institutional reforms on a war footing.
Independent observers, however, believe that unless the prime minister changes his own style of governance of inaction and indifference, nothing better is expected even in the future.
Following pressures exerted by the sit-ins of the PTI and PAT, the government had announced self-accountability to oust ineffective ministers and to introduce a set of reforms. However, later the government got cold feet and resorted to a “go slow” strategy.
Initially, indications were that non-performers in the federal cabinet would be shown the door by last October or early November but it did not happen even till now.
For this purpose, a special meeting of the federal cabinet was convened by the prime minister on October 28, 2014. In the said meeting, a few ministers presented their performance but nothing happened thereafter.
It was said that first federal and state ministers would be asked about the extent of the implementation of party manifesto in their respective ministerial domains. The second benchmark was said to be about the reforms agenda.
Because of the pressure exerted by the first phase of PTI-PAT sit-ins, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was pressed by a set of his senior ministers to get the performance of his cabinet ministers assessed to decide a reshuffle.
Following the PTI and PAT pressure, it was generally said by the PML-N ministers that the government had realised that without performance and reforms, it was hard for it to survive and counter those who had conspired to oust the Nawaz Sharif government only after one year of its rule.