Interviewed nobody for CM Punjab slot: Tareen

LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Jehangir Khan Tareen has said he is not interviewing any MPA for the slot of chief minister Punjab.

Talking to The News on Sunday, Tareen, also the former secretary general of the PTI, said he only held meetings with MPAs to discuss various issues, but nobody was being interviewed for the slot of CM. To a question, he ruled out any major change in the Punjab setup in the coming days.

This is noteworthy that PTI leader Ejaz Chaudhry, in an interview to a private TV channel, had claimed that Tareen was interviewing candidates for the Punjab chief minister slot. Already, over the issue of governance and inability to address public issues, the Punjab government led by Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has been under severe criticism from within and outside the PTI. Prime Minister Imran Khan himself has expressed anger on different occasions on the Punjab leadership over the public complaints.

Besides, after a cabinet reshuffle in the centre, reports of change in Punjab have started doing the rounds and some of the ministers in the cabinet of Sardar Usman Buzdar have been warned by the top party leadership to improve their performance and respond to the complaints of irregularities in their ministries.

Besides, the lose grip of Buzdar over the bureaucracy is another reason behind criticism on him from his party. Punjab Food Minister Samiullah Chaudhry, in a press conference last month, had expressed anger against ‘snake in the grass’ acting against the government.

Prime Minister Imran Khan, who during his first press conference in Lahore after taking oath as PM, had claimed that for the next five years, Buzdar would remain the CM of Punjab. Jehangir Tareen, who is considered the second most powerful man in the PTI after Imran Khan, has also expressed similar views. However, the rest of the party is predicting a different situation.