ISLAMABAD - It may be called typical bureaucratic lethargy or inefficiency that in this technical age an all-purpose official website of the government of Pakistan, which also serves as information hub for the local and foreign media as well as outside the world, is not aware of the actual size of the country’s federal cabinet – ministers, state ministers, advisers and special assistants to the premier.
Not only this, it also misses the allocation of defence and law and parliamentary affairs ministries to two ministers, Khawaja Asif and Pervaiz Rashid, respectively, as additional portfolios at the end of November last. Asif holds water and power while Information Minister Rashid is also holding the charge of law and parliamentary affairs ministry.
According to the website (www.pid.gov.pk), Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Riaz Hussain Pirzada doesn’t exist at all. The federal minister took oath at the end of June, 2013. Interestingly, fiery Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali who has been at the centre of controversy with PTI-led government for the last many weeks due to power theft issue in the KPK province also doesn’t exit, if someone is to believe the official website. Abid Sher was appointed MoS in July, last year
The official Press Information Department (PID) website shows the federal cabinet comprises 19 federal ministers, 9 ministers of state, 2 advisers and 2 special assistants to the premier.
On the other hand, the official website of the National Assembly of Pakistan (www.na.gov.pk) seems up-to-date to great extent. The NA website shows a total of 20 federal ministers, 10 ministers of state, 3 advisErs to the PM, and 4 special assistants to the premier.
Interestingly, the PID website still mentions Shujaat Azeem as adviser to the PM on aviation. That was many months back when he resigned. He has lately been appointed as special assistant to the PM on aviation on honorary basis as he didn’t want to get any benefit from the official job. It also doesn’t mention allocation of additional responsibility of Minister of State for Interior Balighur Rehman. It also misses the names of Imtiaz Sheikh and Miftah Ismail as special assistants to the premier.
Interestingly, three federal ministers and a minister of state who took oath in the mid of January 2014 have been mentioned in the PID website, naturally undated, but still misses out elevation of Khurram Dastgir as a federal minister of Commerce. Dastgir’s portfolio was announced without delay while the rest of two federal ministers and minister of state are still awaiting allocation of portfolios.
Furthermore, PID website misses Amir Muqam and Amir Bakhsh Bhutto as advisers to the PM. Amir Bakhsh Bhutto has recently resigned, but till his resignation is duly accepted, he holds the official position.
To its credit, the PID website could only correctly mention Sardar Sanaullah Zehri as special assistant to the PM with the rank of a federal minister. The NA website misses this.
In this modern era when Pakistan’s federal and provincial governments are striving hard to introduce e-governance, such a gross negligence by an official and most important website of the Pakistani government which disseminates information needs the high-ups’ earliest attention.