Performance check: Foreign missions come under microscope

Panel formed to review their working; PM wants justification for postings in missions abroad.


Shahbaz Rana August 20, 2013
PHOTO: AFP/ FILE

ISLAMABAD:


The federal government has constituted a panel to review performances of defence, commercial, labour and information attaches posted abroad, as most of these positions are said to have been created at places not considered important in furthering the country’s economic and foreign policy goals.


The decision was taken on Monday during a meeting chaired by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar. The sub-committee will be headed by Tariq Fatemi, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs while establishment and finance secretaries will be its members. The sub-committee has been mandated to review the performance of different officers posted in Pakistan’s missions abroad and submit its report within three weeks.



Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had issued a directive on July 18 to review the performance of Pakistan’s foreign missions and submit a report justifying their positions. Pakistan’s foreign trade missions have come under criticism for not generating any demand for the country’s exports, despite spending millions of dollars for their operations.

The trade missions in Sao Paulo Brazil, Montreal Canada, Santiago in Chile, Port Louis in Mauritius, Casablanca in Morocco, Hague in the Netherlands, Warsaw in Poland, Stockholm in Switzerland and Houston in the United States, have particularly faced criticism for not doing anything.

Similarly, sources said that officials posted to export labour from Pakistan are also not contributing.

The previous standing committee on commerce, headed by Engineer Khurram Dastgir of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), who is now state minister for privatisation, had raised the issue of performance of these commercial counselors.

The parliamentary panel had also questioned the parliamentarians from Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the PML-N for using their influence on the previous government to get their kin appointed at lucrative posts at various trade missions, according to the officials.

The name of a key presidential aide was echoed in appointment of the last batch of commercial counselors, officials of the commerce ministry revealed.

The Cabinet Secretary Sami Saeed informed the committee that 14 ministries and divisions have responded to the pro forma circulated by the Cabinet Division for obtaining information as per terms of reference.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 20th, 2013.

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