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16 ministries issued red letters

By Agencies
May 09, 2020

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday issued red-letter to 16 ministries over delay in implementation of the cabinet’s decisions.

This is the second time the PM’s office has issued the red-letter, which is a warning and a sign of displeasure. Last year, secretaries of 27 ministries were issued red-letter for failing to act upon the cabinet’s orders.

According to a notification issued by the PM Office, the federal cabinet had assigned eight tasks to relevant ministries, which were to be completed in the allotted time. However, the ministries were still to implement five cabinet decisions.

“The 16 ministries have been given 21 [more] days,” the notification stated. A performance report of the ministers was also to be submitted along with the mention of any failure on their part to implement the instructions given in the new red-letter. The PM’s delivery unit would prepare a detailed report after 21 days.

The ministries and their respective divisions were supposed to provide a list of positions lying vacant at all levels to the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) for framing or updating of the recruitment rules.

The list of vacant positions include those that can be re-designated, rationalised or deleted. They were also to provide a list of officers/officials (all type of ex-cadres) eligible for promotion but not being promoted due to various reasons.

The ministries and divisions had also been asked to timely dispose of disciplinary proceedings – initiated against government employees – pending for more than three months.

They were also to provide data of ‘the prescribed format’ regarding record/files to be archived, machinery, vehicles, equipment to be condemned and disposed of as per the approved procedure.

With the issuance of the red-letter to 16 ministries, reports of another reshuffle in the federal cabinet have started making rounds in political circles.

Informed sources told Pakistan Today that changes in the cabinet are likely after Prime Minister Imran Khan receives the reports on the sugar and wheat scandals and the controversial payments made to the Independent Power Producers (IPPs). Sharing details of the “performing” ministers, the sources said that since his appointment as the minister for planning and development, Asad Umar is also acting as the deputy prime minister and has been tasked by PM Imran to oversee important matters.

They said that Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi is another performing minister who has been actively engaged in addressing issues both at the domestic and international levels.

Though Omar Ayub Khan has also been performing well, several eyebrows have raised over his role in the payments to IPPs, they added.

SAFRON Minister Shehryar Afridi is also reported to be doing a satisfactory job as he was instrumental in reviving the trilateral talks between Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan which were suspended for two years.

Though Minister for Law Dr Farogh Nasim has been working hard, his team failed to effectively represent the government in major cases in the superior courts. From the controversy arising out of the extension in the army chief’s tenure to the recent lapse of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), his ministry’s performance has been questionable, sources said.

The ministries of petroleum and health are being run by technocrats whose own credentials have been challenged time and again. While the Supreme Court has raised serious questions over the performance of Dr Zafar Mirza, the credentials of PM’s Special Assistant on Petroleum Nadeem Babar are also under scrutiny for being a beneficiary of the IPPs payments.

PM’s adviser Razzak Dawood is also in the spotlight after his name emerged in the IPPs report. Dawood and Nadeem Babar will have a tough time justifying their presence in the cabinet because both men have relatives who are running businesses related to their ministries. This is being seen as a serious conflict of interest in government circles, the sources said.

Minister for Railways Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed may be useful in political point-scoring but his performance as a minister is not noteworthy. The only achievement that he has been touting is the Mainline-I (ML-I) project with China, which is likely to be signed this year.

Chaudhry Fawad Hussain is another minister who has failed to make an impact in the Ministry of Science and Technology. Though the minister is quite active in criticising other government departments, including the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee and Council of Islamic Ideology, he has shown little interest in reviving any of the organs falling under his own domain.

According to sources, Khusro Bakhtiar’s performance as the minister for economic affairs is also lacklustre. During his term as the planning minister, Khusro was more focused on building the political narrative on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) instead of implementing decisions, the sources added.

Though Murad Saeed has been active in building a political narrative of the ruling party, he has failed to launch any major project under the National Highway Authority (NHA), sources said.

Senator Shibli Faraz has recently taken over the affairs of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and would require some time to settle down and improve his department.

Makhdoom Mehboob Sultan, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Ameenul Haq, Ali Amin Gandapur, Tariq Bashir Cheema, Zubeida Jalal, Mohammedmian Soomro, Pervez Khattak, Faisal Vawda, Shabbir Ali Qureshi, Ali Mohammad Khan and Zartaj Gul are among those ministers who are dubbed as ‘strangers’ in their own ministries. According to sources, a majority of these ministers have no knowledge or command on the affairs of their respective ministries.