PM Imran Khan shakes up cabinet – again

Fakhar replaces Khusro Bakhtiar as food security minister, Jahangir Khan Tareen removed from task force on agriculture

ISLAMABAD:

In a quick response to a damning report that points to some of the top ruling party leaders’ involvement in the sugar crisis, Prime Minister Imran Khan has changed portfolios of key ministers while bringing in new faces.

Monday’s reshuffle looks especially limited when compared with Imran’s first reshuffle carried out in April last year.

The prime minister replaced Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar with Syed Fakhar Imam as Federal Minister for National Food Security, said a notification issued by the PM Office, adding Azam Sawati was made Federal Minister for Narcotics Control.

Bakhtiar has instead been assigned the new charge of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Bakhtiar has replaced Hammad Azhar, who will hold the responsibility for the industries ministry.

The industries ministry was being overlooked by Abdul Razak Dawood, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce, Textile, Industry & Production and Investment.

However, the notification did not mention whether Dawood's role has changed after Azhar's appointment.

Moreover, the prime minister also appointed Babar Awan as his adviser for parliamentary affairs.

The cabinet reshuffle came just two days after the Federal Investigation Agency released reports on the sugar crisis and beneficiaries of subsidies obtained by the industry's bigwigs.

The report on the sugar crisis named Bakhtiar, then the minister for national food security, as one of the beneficiaries, in addition to PTI leader Jahangir Tareen.

The prime minister also accepted the resignation of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s (MQM-P) Khalid Maqbool Siddique as Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications. MQM-P’s Aminul Haq has been given the charge of the IT ministry.

Among other changes, Mohammad Shahzad Arbab was removed as adviser to the prime minister on establishment, while Omar Hameed replaced Hashim Popalzai as ministry of food security secretary.

As the news of the cabinet reshuffle surfaced, former Punjab government spokesperson Shahbaz Gill tweeted that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s close aide and the ruling PTI’s former secretary general Jahangir Khan Tareen was removed from the task force on agriculture “in light of the findings of the sugar and wheat inquiry report”.

In his tweet, Gill also hinted that further action would be taken against those found guilty of the wheat and sugar crises. However, Tareen rubbished the development, saying he never headed any task force.

Also, Special Assistant to the PM on Information and Broadcasting Firdous Ashiq Awan denied that Bakhtiar had resigned from the food ministry portfolio.

“Khusro Bakhtiar has not resigned, his portfolio has been changed,” Awan said while addressing a news conference.

On April 4, leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), including Bakhtiar and Tareen, were named among those who allegedly benefited the most from the recent sugar crisis in the country.

According to a report of the three-member committee headed by director general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Tareen, a brother of Bukhtiar and the Speaker Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi’s son were the ones who gained from the sugar crisis.

PM had constituted two Inquiry Committees under the chairmanship of DG FIA Wajid Zia to probe into circumstances leading to the wheat & flour controversy and the reasons behind increase in sugar prices in the country.

After making the inquiry reports public, the prime minister had vowed not to spare those found guilty of creating and profiteering off the sugar and wheat crises once he received the detailed forensic reports of the FIA-led commission’s preliminary findings on April 25.

Firdous said that the prime minister had ordered restructuring of the Competition Commission of Pakistan and directed the officials concerned to submit a report regarding the sugar crisis, production, stock and related affairs by April 25.

“Following the report, the prime minister will not only take action but give an alternative policy as well,” she said, adding the prime minister had started the process of self-accountability from his party and taken some difficult decisions while giving importance to the national interest.

The adviser said the prime minister’s target was to make a system where the policies were not self-centric, adding he would continue making state institutions strong.

Firdous said in the past the sugar mills association was the only source of information regarding sugar production and stock to the government, adding the association used to protect the interests of a selected few.

While criticising the opposition parties, she said they were merely busy in point scoring instead of appreciating the prime minister’s move of making the reports public for the first time in the country’s political history.

“The prime minister has promised to eliminate corruption from the country,” she said, adding it was proved now that “there is no sacred cow in Pakistan”.