Jahangir Tareen emerges as de facto deputy PM

ISLAMABAD: Jahangir Tareen, who was disqualified from holding any public or political office for not being honest and truthful by the apex court, has now informally taken the lead role of Imran Khan’s deputy on issues of economy, governance and reforms.

Informed sources in the Prime Minister’s Office confided to The News that Tareen has now become a regular feature of the PM Secretariat. Not only that he is leading a team of experts which works in the background and advises Prime Minister Imran Khan on major issues of economy and reforms but he also co-chairs most of the meetings convened by PM’s Adviser on Establishment Arbab Shahzad.

Such is the frequency of Tareen’s attendance of meetings called by PM’s Reforms Team and Arbab Shahzad that the Adviser on Establishment appears to be acting like a decoy for Tareen.

The sources said that Jehangir Tareen is also leading otherwise an invisible team of experts, which informally acts as Prime Minister’s think tank on economic matters. These sources said that Jehangir Tareen leads the invisible team which besides others include three bankers and Shabbar Zaidi, who is now nominated for the office of Chairman FBR.

Tareen can’t hold any public office because of Supreme Court’s verdict that disqualified him but without having a formal role, according to the sources, he is practically the deputy prime minister. To Tareen’s advantage and others’ disadvantage, he is calling the shots but can’t be held responsible or accountable because of his informal role.

Prime Minister’s spokesman Nadeem Afzal Chan when contacted said that neither Tareen holds any public office not is he the deputy prime minister. Chan, however, said that Tareen is expert on agriculture farming and livestock and thus is invited to attend meetings on these subjects. Chan said Tareen also attends political meetings of the PTI.

Tareen was also conspicuous on Monday during Prime Minister Imran Khan’s interaction with the media persons. Although the PM’s interaction with the media was focused on the issue of Local Government, those sitting on both sides of Imran Khan were Chief Ministers of Punjab and KPK, their relevant ministers and Jehangir Tareen.

Few days before the abrupt sacking of Asad Umar as finance minister by the Prime Minister during his recent reshuffle in the cabinet, Jehangir Tareen in a television talk show expressed his dissatisfaction over the economic policies of the government and subtly targeted Asad Umar for his indecisiveness. Tareen’s remarks raised many eyebrows both within the PTI and outside.

Although Tareen remained active in the formation of the PTI government by alluring independent MPs to join the ruling party, he rarely attended officials meeting in the past. Several months back, objections were raised when the media reported that the disqualified former parliamentarian Jahangir Khan Tareen chaired a meeting of top government officials at the Secretariat of the Prime Minister.

It was reported that on Sept 13, Tareen convened a meeting of the Livestock Emergency Working Group that had been assigned to develop a concrete plan to deliver on the prime minister’s commitment to revamping the livestock sector under the ‘Uplift Agriculture and Conserve Water’ theme of the new government’s 100-day agenda. The next meeting of the working group has been called around mid-October.

Later, again the government faced criticism when Tareen was invited in a cabinet meeting to brief the Prime Minister and his team on the subject of agriculture. But now, according to the sources, Tareen has become really active and mostly chairs the meeting by using the meetings convened by Arbab Shahzad.

Tareen was disqualified on Dec 15 last year for mis-declaration under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution — the same provision under which former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was held ineligible for life to hold any public office over the Panama Papers leaks case. The former general secretary of the PTI, Mr Tareen, had filed a petition in the Supreme Court to review the Dec 15 verdict — this was, however, rejected as well.