My way or the highway, PM tells his team

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Friday told his ministers, special assistants, and advisers to pull their socks up and match their words with concrete action rather than giving briefings.

According to sources, during a recent meeting of the federal cabinet, the prime minister told his team that their departments will have to show performance with timelines and he will personally review implementation of the government decisions.

The same formula applies to the provincial ministers and officers. The prime minister has also reprimanded several senior officers for adopting delaying tactics in presenting reports and warned that the officers failing to perform up to the expectations would be proceeded against.

He also made it abundantly clear that any laxity or dereliction in the implementation of decisions would not be tolerated.

It merits a mention that the government has introduced a new system to judge performance under which the prime minister has signed a performance contract with the ministers of 11 ministries and divisions.

Some of these ministries are Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Housing and Works, Ministry of Industries and Production, Ministry of National Food Security and Research, Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, Ministry of Climate Change, Ministry of National Health Services Regulation and Coordination.

The achievement of set targets would be monitored off and on. A new pro forma has also been devised to judge the performance of officers and those giving the best performance would get privileges.

Meanwhile, the prime minister Friday directed that wheat be brought out from the government warehouses and godowns into the market in order to provide flour to the people at an affordable rate.

The prime minister gave special instructions to the Punjab government to deal with the impending wheat crisis, ignoring the bureaucracy’s advice.

Sources said the officials had advised the PM to bring wheat into the market later on in October, as production was low at that time.

However, the prime minister ignored it and directed the officials to bring wheat to the market immediately adding that wheat would be imported in October if need be.

He said flour should be provided to the public at reasonable rates by establishing affordable markets and points.