PM gives his ministers thumbs up

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday reviewed the performance of his 26 ministers in a special federal cabinet meeting that lasted for nine hours. The prime minister decided that review meetings will be called after every three months to evaluate the performance of all ministries and divisions and adopt mid-way course corrections, where required. Reports from the ministries and divisions were presented to the prime minister that was followed by a briefing by the ministers and question-answer sessions.

Imran said the foundation of ‘Naya Pakistan’ had been laid and asked the ministers to work harder and step up efforts so that the living standard of masses could be improved. He gave instructions to several ministers and decided to give them more time to improve their performance. Performance of remaining ministries will be reviewed at a later date.

The cabinet decided to make quarterly evaluation of the ministries’ performance a regular feature. On completion of the first 100 days, the PM had announced to summon a special meeting of the federal cabinet members, including federal ministers, ministers of state, advisers and special assistants.

"Discussions on actions already taken in terms of service delivery, austerity measures adopted and future plans was held in each case with a view to improving performance under each of these heads further," said a statement issued from the PM’s office. "It was decided that each ministry would be further tasked with a specific strategic plan for implementation, spread over five years so that all concerned work in tandem for optimum output," the spokesperson said.

It was learnt that primarily, the prime minister asked each minister three questions about the performance of his ministry, achievements and targets and the savings made through austerity measures.

Every minister was given 10 minutes to brief the prime minister on his ministry’s input and this was followed by brief question-answer session. The prime minister had recently hinted at the possibility of changing portfolios of those ministers failing to deliver as per the set target.

The review meetings will also ensure that overall performance of the government was on track. The main aim of this exercise is to improve the quality of life of Pakistani citizens, the statement added. The briefing, which started at 11:30am, lasted for nine hours.

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said the prime minister analysed the performance of all ministers with great patience and hard work. "The things done in the ministries during the last 100 days could never have been imagined over the past 10 years," he said in tweets.

The minister also said while the meeting was still in progress that it did not appear to him that he would be able to hold briefing, as the cabinet meeting was continuing.