LAHORE: Prime Minister Imran Khan has set a deadline of two months for provincial ministers in Punjab to improve performance and urged them to either perform or get ready to be sent home, according to provincial Housing Minister Mian Mehmoodur Rashid.

Briefing the media on the prime minister’s address to the PTI’s parliamentary party here on Tuesday, Mr Rashid said Mr Khan warned the provincial ministers that if their performance did not improve the cabinet would not be reshuffled, instead the non-performing ministers would be sent home.

PM Khan paid a short visit to the city on Tuesday during which he addressed the parliamentary party and held a meeting with Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar and Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi. He returned to Islamabad in the evening.

Mr Rashid said PM Khan was monitoring performance of the provincial cabinet.

Mehmoodur Rashid says Imran has made it clear non-performing ministers will have no place in cabinet

He said the prime minister believed that 90 per cent bureaucrats considered themselves as employees of the state and followed the rules. “The trouble is with the remaining 10pc who act more as personal servants of the rulers,” he quoted the prime minister as saying.

The provincial minister said the prime minister had made it clear that such bureaucrats “would not and should not get active postings”, he added.

He said PM Khan had told the cabinet members that they should prioritise the development agenda for each district. “Though every district might have its own peculiar development needs the entire province needs clean drinking water and it must be given priority over other needs. The entire planning should be for the good of common man. The common man must feel relieved,” he quoted the prime minister as saying.

He said during his address, PM Khan hailed the financial package from Saudi Arabia and informed the parliamentary party that he was going to China and the nation would get more good news soon. “I would not be seeking loans in China, but investment and technology transfer. The Chinese are also keen to help Pakistan in both areas,” PM Khan was quoted as saying.

Mr Rashid said the prime minister expressed his seriousness about the Naya Pakistan Housing Programme and said he had already presided over half a dozen meetings in this regard.

The minister said during his meeting with Mr Elahi, PM Khan discussed with him the opposition’s boycott of the provincial assembly’s proceedings. The speaker briefed the prime minister on how he was trying to run the house smoothly. The speaker informed the prime minister that the opposition was trying to create disruptions in the house.

The prime minister has reportedly told the speaker that he should run the house according to the rules and regulations, and not bother about the opposition’s behaviour.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2018