Pakistan Democratic Alliance (PDM) and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman took a jibe at the government on Saturday, saying that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s awarding of certificates to ministries over their performance was an indication that their “game is over”.
PM Imran had awarded appreciation certificates to the “top 10 best performing federal ministries” under his government on Thursday, with the communications ministry, planning ministry and poverty alleviation division getting top honors of first, second and third respectively.
Alluding to that initiative while addressing a ceremony in Lahore, Fazl said: “When do you give certificates? You give certificates after a game has ended. So it seems, they have indicated that their game is over.”
“And this is why we gave the indication of our future at night,” he continued, making an apparent reference to the PDM’s announcement the previous night of tabling a no-confidence motion against the government.
Turning his attention again to the government’s initiative of awarding certificates to ministries on the basis of their performance, he said the government had been claiming that there had been signs of economic progress and that the world had acknowledged Pakistan’s economic progress.
“Then why have you deprived the finance minister [of the certificate]?” he posed a rhetoric question.
Similarly, he added, the government had been saying that it had established “very good” diplomatic ties. The government, he continued, termed the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s Council of Foreign Ministers summit on the Afghan issue in Islamabad in December a “fantastic sign of a successful foreign policy”.
“Why have you then deprived Shah Mahmood Qureshi [of a certificate]?” he questioned.
Fazl said the government had also been claiming that “our defense is in strong hands”.
“Why have you then deprived Pervez Khattak?” he asked about the defense minister.
He also criticized the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government over rising inflation in the country and its foreign policy.
“None of our neighbors is happy with us today,” he lamented.
Objections over awardees’ list
The government’s initiative to award ministries certificates on the basis of their performance has drawn criticism from other members of the opposition — and even within the PTI.
Earlier, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had said PM Imran had distributed certificates among his ten favorite ministers, which meant that he had expressed “no-confidence” in the rest of the members of the federal cabinet.
He had added that the prime minister was busy distributing certificates among his ministers when he should be focusing on solving the people’s issues.
Meanwhile, PPP Vice President Sherry Rehman had deemed the entire move as a “joke with the nation”.
“The government’s three-year performance is full of mismanagement, corruption and failures,” she had said in a statement. “There is a crisis situation in every ministry.”
Rehman said there were question marks over the performance of several ministries, quipping whether any ministry was devoid of the blame for creating a crisis.
According to a Dawn reportwhich cited sources from some ministries, some federal cabinet members have expressed reservations for being overlooked.
The report said Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who is also the vice president of the ruling party, even wrote a letter to the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Establishment Arbab Shahzad, expressing serious reservations over placing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the 11th spot .
The criteria on which the top ten ministries were judged and a subsequent report presented to the PM were prepared by Shahzad.
According to the report, two government allies — the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, which held the IT and housing ministries, respectively — were also dejected for not being acknowledged despite showing “outstanding performance”.
In this connection, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry told Dawn the Establishment Division could not properly communicate the criteria with the ministries as a result of which achievements of some of them were not acknowledged.