ISLAMABAD - No reshuffle or shunting out of some federal ministers as a result of the ongoing scrutiny of their performance by Prime Minister Imran Khan is expected, and the maximum action against the underperformers will be a caution call to spruce up their output.
Some government functionaries and those involved in the process of evaluating the performance of ministers were not expecting major overhaul of the Federal Cabinet, as by and large; the ministers have performed well, as in the first 100 days in office, most of the ministers had devised their future course of action and given the roadmap of improvements in their respective ministries.
Sources in the party further informed that however some fresh induction in the federal cabinet is expected in coming days and the coalition partners could swap their representation in the cabinet by some new entrants in the National Assembly in by-elections.
Prime Minister Imran Khan in his speech on completion of 100 days in power had himself said that the concept of 100 days performance was to give future direction, and he had given their plan of improvement in different areas.
So on the same pattern, the ministries and divisions had given their roadmap for the functioning of the ministries that how they would go about the ongoing development projects and what are their future plans, a PTI parliamentarian said.
Sources in the government also confirmed that the idea of evaluation of the ministers’ performance was to keep them on their toes and to get maximum out of them – as in the past it was noted that after securing the ministerial portfolio most of the ministers went into slackness, resulting in negative impact on the overall performance of the government.
The sources in the government said that the government after evaluating the performance of the federal and state ministers would give caution to those PTI ministers whose performance remained below the standard set by the government. While in case of the cabinet members from the coalition partners, the leadership of the coalition partners would be approached.
Right now PTI is having Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, Awami Muslim League, Balochistan Awami Party, Grand Democratic Alliance, Balochsitan National Party and Jamhoori Watan Party as its coalition partners. Except for Balochistan National Party and Jamhoori Watan Party, rest of the coalition partners has representation in the Federal Cabinet.
Besides these coalition partners, some independents from south Punjab districts had joined the party before the elections with their own demands and agendas and some of these independents were also accommodated in the Federal Cabinet. Therefore, the mode of application of performance policy on all these could not be the same as in case of coalition partners any change in guard would be made in consultation with the leadership of coalition partner.
Sources in the party said that by and large, the performance of representatives from coalition partners in the Federal Cabinet was good and there was not even a chance of issuing them caution notice.
Among the coalition partners Federal Cabinet members including Barrister Faroogh Nasim, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Sheikh Rasheed, Zubaida Jalal, Dr Fahmida Mirza, Tariq Bashir Cheema, and a few others were vibrant and performing well in their respective ministries and Prime Minister Imran Khan was quite satisfied with their performance, sources in the government confirmed.
Following the rumours about the change in the portfolio of Finance Minister Asad Umar, a number of government representatives including the Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Political Affairs Naeemul Haq came out categorically that no change in the financial team of the government is on the cards.
The sources in the government confirmed to The Nation that certain elements within the party were out spreading rumours about Asad Umar’s removal with specific designs, but in reality, there was nothing concrete as the finance minister fully enjoys the confidence of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The sources further said that the rumours of some other ministers’ losing the ministerial slots or change in their portfolios were also incorrect as maximum out of the current evaluation of the performance of the ministers would be issuance of caution and last chance to perform. If the ministers still fail to perform, then they could be replaced with new faces in Federal Cabinet in the next phase of evaluation.
No reshuffle or
removal in cabinet