ISLAMABAD: It seems that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has woken up to the governance issues that have been plaguing his third stint in office.
The head of government has ordered all cabinet members to prepare their own departmental performance reports, detailing all the work they have done since taking charge in June last year.
In a written directive, Sharif asked ministers to prepare briefs on their ministries and departments, explaining whether they have been able to achieve certain targets that were set for them, over the past 16 months.
The ministerial progress reports, according to the orders issued by the PM’s Office, should address these basic queries: the extent to which they (the ministers) have implemented the party’s manifesto; steps taken for public welfare; a roadmap for the future; and, reforms initiated under their leadership.
The PM has also convened a special cabinet meeting on October 28 ‘for the review (of) all ministers and the meeting will continue until (the) completion of this exercise’.
For political input, this special sitting of the cabinet will also be attended by party chairman Raja Zafarul Haq and Secretary General Iqbal Zafar Jhagra.
The PM’s Office has already completed its own in-house performance audit.
The ministerial progress reports will now be scrutinised in the light of the PM Office’s findings to establish whether ministers’ performance was up to the mark or not. This exercise, insiders say, may be followed by a cabinet reshuffle.
For many, Nawaz Sharif’s decision to hold members of his cabinet accountable is no doubt motivated by the relentless criticism being hurled at them by the protesting Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.
Ever since they have been camped out on D-Chowk, Khan has taken the government to task every day for everything from unprecedented hikes in gas and electricity prices to corruption and wrongdoing in official business.
A PML-N minister accepted that governments can no longer hide their failures.
Gone are the days when a regime’s dirty laundry was only discovered by their successors, he said. INTERNEWS
