ISLAMABAD: Going by the press note issued after a meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the head of the Planning Commission, Ahsan Iqbal, it would appear that the latter has the PM’s support in an ongoing tiff with a couple of his cabinet colleagues.

Following recent criticism of the Planning Commission by the powerful ministers for Water & Power and Petroleum, Mr Iqbal met the prime minister for a detailed discussion on Tuesday.

“The fast-track process of project planning, monitoring and evaluation undertaken by the Planning Commission should be maintained,” the PM was quoted as saying in a statement released by his media office.

Take a look: Rift surfaces in govt over handling of uplift projects

The PM also appreciated, according to the release, Mr Iqbal’s efforts to build the capacity of ministry officials, which had enhanced the performance of the Planning and Development Division. “[The] PM appreciated the transparent mechanism adopted by the Planning & Development ministry in its affairs,” the statement said.

It said that the PM was particularly appreciative of how Mr Iqbal’s ministry had adopted measures “that resulted in significant savings for the national exchequer”.

But a well-connected government source told Dawn, “Tuesday’s meeting with PM was held against the backdrop of Khawaja Asif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s recent criticism of Mr Iqbal.”

During the meeting, he said, Mr Iqbal explained the Planning Commission’s point of view on various development projects, such as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

According to the source, Mr Iqbal even asked the PM to reassign him, if he (the PM) thought the Planning Commission wasn’t doing a good job with regard to the scrutiny of major development projects.

“I can only discharge my duty as minister for planning as long as I have your complete confidence and backing,” the source quoted Mr Iqbal as telling the PM.

In the short but unequivocal press statement released after the meeting, the PM threw his weight behind Mr Iqbal, said another government source, who was privy to the prevailing tensions that came to the fore earlier this month.

At a recent seminar in Islamabad, both Mr Asif and Mr Abbasi had called for the Planning Commission to be scrapped and said that it was detrimental to the national interest. Both also decried the role of regulators, such as Nepra and Ogra, with Mr Asif going as far as to say that the Planning Commission’s “expertise lay in delaying and derailing key national projects”.

In response, Mr Iqbal issued a strongly-worded press statement saying – without naming anyone – that the prudent cost cuts implemented by the Planning Commission had perturbed certain ‘brother ministers’.

“Some ministries and divisions feel irritated [by the] close scrutiny of development projects, but this cannot distract the Planning Commission from its responsibility to safeguard the public money and ensure its effective utilisation in development projects,” Mr Iqbal was quoted as saying.

However, another member of the federal cabinet told Dawn that the disagreement among cabinet colleagues over the role of the Planning Commission had been blown out of proportion by the media.

But the minister, who spoke on condition of anonymity, agreed that such divergent views shouldn’t have been made public. “The federal cabinet is the best forum to address such issues because taking them to the public will only bring disrepute to the government”, he said.

But for those in the party’s inner sanctum, there seems to be ‘method to this madness’.

Following the Nandipur power project fiasco, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was said to have developed serious differences with the water and power minister because he had reportedly refused to rescue the younger Sharif who had babysat the controversial Nandipur power project.

In the new power equation, a party office-bearer claimed, Mr Iqbal had aligned himself with the Punjab chief minister.

Published in Dawn, October 14th , 2015

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