Question mark over selection criteria

ISLAMABAD: The selection of 10 top performing ministers, advisers and special assistants has raised many questions about the selection criteria for the best performers in the cabinet. From outside, it appears to be a case of the blind leading the blind.

Most importantly, the Prime Minister Imran Khan being head of Establishment Division did not make it to the top ten. The ED, which is the division of the PM, figures way down at number 18 in the list.

While some of those who have been included in the list of top performers have major failures under their belt, the failed ones include those in charge of areas in which the government often claims to have served brilliantly and set the precedent even for the rest of the world.

According to Cabinet Division, the federal cabinet comprises 55 members with 28 federal ministers, four ministers of state, four advisors to the prime minister and 19 special assistants to the prime minister. In the government claimed successes and failures, there is also a tacit admission of bad performance as against what the government otherwise claims in public.

For example, the Finance Ministry does not find any place in the list of top 10 performers. Though this reflects what is generally said about the poor shape of the country’s economy and the government’s economic policies, it negates the PTI government’s claim that its economic achievements are appreciated and acknowledged even by the international community.

The government often presents the ten billion tree tsunami campaign as its flagship project and insists that it is a great environmental achievement and a unique precedent for the world community to follow. However, those leading the project did not find any place in the list of top 10 performers.

Similarly, Prime Minister Imran Khan has said so many times that Pakistan has done extremely well in its policy to deal with Covid-19 and is a role model for the outside world. However, neither the health ministry nor Khan’s health advisor Dr Faisal Sultan Sultan got any appreciation on Thursday.

Foreign affairs and the foreign ministry, however, got what they deserved as Pakistan’s foreign policy and Islamabad’s relations with other countries worsened compared to the past. The prime minister admires Hammad Azhar and has appreciated him in public more than once. However, the Thursday show was an admission of the poor performance of Azhar’s ministry on energy issues.

There are many who may think highly of themselves but got a bad ranking. Law Minister Farogh Naseem is one such example and according to a source, the law ministry under Naseem should be rated at the number one position for fuelling conspiracies and giving bad advice.

The information minister Fawad Chaudhry must be a disappointed man for not clicking in the captain’s mind. It is, however, not known why the National Food Security ministry has been judged to rank among the top performers when Pakistan has become a net importer of all food products except rice.

The ministry of communications was responsible for the construction of major roads and highways under CPEC, where all projects are behind schedule. The Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway has been delayed for the last five years. The CPEC western corridor was to be completed in 2018 but was only completed last month. Despite this, Murad Saeed has been rated as the number one minister. Asad Umar stood second despite CPEC’s problems.

Dr Shireen Mazari’s Human Rights ministry also got selected among the best performers despite the fact that the government lost even the missing persons bill which she was pursuing.

There is no explanation for what the interior minister Shaikh Rashid did to get a place among the top performers. In reality, the law and order situation is getting worse and terrorism has again started haunting the nation.

Razzak Dawood also got appreciation without explaining how he became a great performer. The country’s exports have shown little growth despite the record devaluation of the Pak rupee and unprecedented exemptions and facilitations given to the export sector.

It was also a bad day for many like Shbili Fraz, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Pervez Khattak, Zobeda Jalal, Omar Ayub, Tariq Cheema, Aminul Haq, Fehmida Mirza, Ali Amin Khan Gandapur, Farogh Nasim, Ali Haider Zaidi, Ijaz Ahmad Shah, Muhammad Mian Soomro, Azam Swati, Moonis Elahi and others. However, there was no list showing who performed the worst.