Punjab senior minister Abdul Aleem Khan has dismissed the notion that he is playing the role of provincial chief minister from the sidelines.
While giving an interview to BBC Urdu, Aleem Khan said, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader clarified the impression that he is the 'real' Punjab Chief Minister and Usman Buzdar is not in the lead.
He said, "I do have a lot of responsibilities but the Punjab chief minister has entrusted me with them.
Aleem, who holds the charge of local government and community development (LG&CD) department, explained, “If tomorrow I ask you to chair a meeting on local government, it does not mean that you have become the minister for that department.”
The senior provincial minister continued, “Buzdar asked me to overlook the province’s 100-day plan and to check the performance of departments.”
“If the Chief Minister has asked me to head the plan for a clean Punjab then that responsibility has been given to me by him and if he did not give it to me then would have assigned it to someone else,” he added.
“I am only overlooking matters that the Punjab chief minister has asked me to oversee and nothing more,” Aleem asserted.
While talking about a new local government system, the Punjab senior minister said his ministry has prepared a draft of recommendations which will be forwarded to Prime Minister Imran Khan for approval this week.
Aleem khan criticized the previous government, saying, “The former Punjab chief minister kept all the powers with himself and the mayors of the cities had no authority.”
“Under the new local government system, local representatives will have complete administrative and economic authority,” he said.
“For the first time, councils will be established according to neighbourhoods in cities and districts so people do not have to travel far to raise their issues,” Aleem added.
“The mayors will be in charge of all matters pertaining to their cities and all institutions will work under them,” the PTI leader further said.
The senior minister also shared that mayors will be elected by the people. “The people of Lahore will elect their mayor themselves.”
