Tackling challenges: PM tells cabinet members to demonstrate governance

Says if ministers fail to achieve targets within 90 days, they may face sacking .

ISLAMABAD:

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif warned ministers that they will be sacked if they fail to deliver the benchmark set after every three months.

According to the documents available with The Express Tribune, while addressing the cabinet meeting held on June 10, the premier directed all ministers to set achievable goals and targets within 15 days. He said targets should be realistic and achievable in the shortest possible time.

“After every quarter, the targets shall be reviewed. If any member of the cabinet fails to achieve the set benchmark, he may not be given the right to remain in the cabinet,” Sharif warned.



Electricity shortage had touched a very critical level without which economic stability was a far cry.

“Neither the martial law government nor the previous government took any positive step towards formulating a comprehensive strategy to deal with the energy crisis which has made the lives of 180 million people of Pakistan miserable,” the premier observed. The prime minister highlighted that the Rs500 billion circular debt was mind blogging.

“We are at a loss as to which option should be exercised. It is ironic that there is no guarantee that once the circular debt issue is resolved, the monster will not rise again,” Sharif said, adding that the other critical issues were power subsidies, transmission and distribution losses and power theft. He said that all corrupts will be held accountable, and maintained that strict action should be taken against them.



“Electricity generated through coal was the least expensive option, whereas furnace oil was the most expensive option,” he said.

The prime minister observed that state-owned public entities were incurring losses to the tune of billions of rupees, but no notice or action was taken to revive them. “A number of options are before us. We will take decisions to prevent further losses on a priority basis,” he said adding that “we are advertising a transparent, merit-based recruitment drive for hiring chief executives and other members to run the state-owned companies.”

He highlighted other major challenges faced by the economy, where the premier said that corruption was rampant, deep rooted and institutionalised.

“We have to get rid of corruption, unemployment, poverty, sectarianism and extremism. We also have to control inflation which is increasing exponentially,” Sharif added.

The prime minister also said that drone attacks were causing death and “collateral damage” on a regular basis inside Pakistani borders. “We will formulate comprehensive policy in this regard,” the premier said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2013.

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