PTI MNAs express ire over inclusion of 'outsiders' in cabinet

Tell PM that parliament has many competent members at PTI parliamentary party meeting

ISLAMABAD: The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers on Wednesday expressed their discontent at appointment of non-elected people at key positions in the federal government – during a PTI parliamentary party meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan

The meeting, attended by elected members of both the PTI and its allied parties, was called to take the lawmakers into confidence with regard to the new local government system (LG) for the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Punjab.

However, according to sources, the members lamented that people who lost the election with a margin of thousands of votes were now sitting at top posts at the PM Office. The parliament has a lot of competent people. Therefore imposing unelected people is simply inappropriate, they said.



MNA from Faisalabad, Raja Riaz said giving preference to unelected people is beyond comprehension. “The elected representatives have no role to play in the government policies,” he said.

Another MNA from Faisalabad Khurram Shahzad said some people lost election with a margin of 40,000 votes but still they are allotted key posts. “The opposition is being given a chance to criticise the government,” he said, amid thumping of desks by other disgruntled members.

Prime Minister Imran Khan said reservations expressed by the MNAs are justified but tough measures have to be taken to correct the country’s economy. Removing [finance minister] Asad Umar is also one of the tough decisions, he said.

“I still consider Asad Umar as my right hand. It is my discretion to decide the order on which each player will play. I take responsibility for my decision. I also realise gravity of issues faced by the people so I changed the strategy. The experts of a field can better understand the issues which is why some of the technocrats have been made part of the team,” the PM said.



The premier directed the members to reach out to people of their constituencies and ensure implementation of Ramazan package through support of the district authorities.

“We gave subsidies amounting to Rs2 billion but we are still getting complaints about shortage of stock at Utility Stores. In addition to the district authorities, the MNA also have the duty to ensure that the prices in their constituencies are controlled for which you must come up with a strategy.”

The members lauded the prime minister for introducing new LG system. Defense Minister Pervez Khattak said the LG system of Punjab was effective but there was a need to make some changes in the local government system of the K-P.