Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif neither invited nor asked senior party colleagues Raja Zafarul Haq and Iqbal Zafar Jhagra to attend a special cabinet session where performances of federal ministers will be reviewed , The Express Tribune has learnt.
The PM House earlier issued instruction that the special cabinet meeting would be convened on October 28 during which the PM directed Raja Zafarul Haq and Jhagra to attend the meeting to review performance of federal ministries.
However, the cabinet meeting convened on Friday instead of October 28 due to some reasons but the party chairman and general secretary were neither invited nor asked to review and assess ministers’ performance.
Former cabinet secretary Akhlaq Ahmed Tarar, who retired on Friday, confirmed that both Zafarul Haq and Jhagra were not invited to attend special cabinet meeting.
PML-N’s Ahsan Iqbal had earlier announced that PML-N will become the first political party in the country’s history to grill its federal minister’s over their performance in a maiden step towards greater accountability. But that has not materialized as yet.
According to well-placed sources in PML-N, Nawaz had two opinions on the basis of which he did not to invite the party leadership to review ministries’ performance presentation and assess them. A group in the cabinet with support of Nawaz’s trustworthy bureaucrats had suggested that PM not invite the two leaders as they should stay away from the government affairs and focus on the party’s organisational affairs.
Sources said that PML-N’s majority ministers and bureaucrats thought that if senior party leadership joins the cabinet, they would not only be embarrassed but their weightage and importance within the party would also erode. Bureaucrats close to Nawaz want to keep all powers in their hands along with half a dozen ministers, sources added.
The second opinion, according to sources, in Nawaz’s mind, was to not invite Raja and Jhagra for the time being and call them during the assessment process after getting presentations of all ministries. They said that Nawaz thought that both leaders would only defend each minister in the cabinet and possibly try to stop the PM from taking action against any minister.
They said that Raja and Jhagra usually try to appease everyone and never criticise any minister.
Jhagra while talking to The Express Tribune said that the PM was scheduled to attend a laptop distribution ceremony at Hazara University so he was sent there to attend the function, missing the cabinet meeting in the meantime. He said he does not know the reason why Raja Zafarul Haq did not attend the meeting.
When asked if he was invited to the next cabinet meeting, he replied that so far he has not received any such invitation.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 2nd, 2014.
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Good step. Accountability will make any party stronger and better positioned to serve masses. Thumbs up to PMLN
PMLn is doing good. I wish all political parties will follow PMLn and strive to help make Pakistan prosper. Dharnas are no good!
An transparent step, indicating that PML-N is well aware of those who appease others and don't dispute for non-vigilant behavior. Its good to keep appeasers like Jhagra and Raja away from important meeting where heavy critic in required.
This looks like an exercise of politics within the party and NOT of of accountability.