PM asks Aleem Khan to ‘vacate’ CM camp office

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has ordered Punjab Senior Minister for Local Government Aleem Khan to immediately vacate the 90 Shahrah-e-Quaid-i-Azam chief minister camp office, who allegedly was running it parallel to the Chief Minister Secretariat.

A source close to the prime minister confided to The News here Sunday that the development took place after it was reported to the PM that the senior minister was not fully cooperating with Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar and was operating from the CM camp office. This facility had been in use of now leader of opposition in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz, when his father Mian Shahbaz Sharif was chief executive of the province.

Sources in the CM Secretariat also explained that recently, on the direction of Imran Khan, the PTI Secretary General Arshad Dad visited Lahore and met the chief minister and other government functionaries as well as senior party leaders with regards to party re-organisational matters.

“Arshad Dad made four attempts to contact the senior minister, but he did not give him time for a meeting in connection with the planned reorganisation of the party. Upon his return, the PTI secretary general met the prime minister and apprised him of his meetings and his failed attempt to also have deliberations with Aleem Khan, who is also party regional president Central Punjab,” they said.

The chief minister, they claimed, also received a call from the prime minister, asking him to assert his position as the chief executive of the province. During his visits to Lahore, Imran Khan has been having meetings with the chief minister, as he strongly believes he can make the difference in good governance.

However, there have been mixed reports in media about the ability of the chief minister to handle the multiple challenges including those from within the ruling party. Neither the PTI secretary general nor the senior minister for local government was available for comments on this development.