In a rare development, the prime minister’s displeasure over the work of unspecified ministries during three years of his government was cited in an official statement about the proceedings of the cabinet.

The statement quoted Mr Gilani as saying that a number of memorandums of understanding and agreements had been signed over the past three years, but the ministries had been sending only “routine responses”.

“I feel that had these agreements been properly executed, our economy, social sector as a whole and physical infrastructure would have significantly improved,” Prime Minister Gilani said.

However, at a news briefing after the cabinet meeting, Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan sidestepped a question whether the prime minister’s remarks reflected a no-confidence in his ministers.

The official statement also quoted Mr Gilani as rejecting, on behalf of the cabinet, what he called an impression that his government wanted a confrontation with any other state institution and, in a reference to political tensions with the opposition PML-N, which rules Punjab, saying that the federally ruling PPP would not be a party to any move aimed at derailing the system there.

“This cabinet unanimously dispels the impression that our government is in any mood of confrontation with any state institution,” the prime minister said in an apparent reference to the judiciary.

And, after referring to break-up of the PML-N-PPP coalition in Punjab, he said: “Let me emphatically declare that the PPP will not be part of any conspiracy which aims at derailing the system and will never buy loyalties of opposition members through horse-trading.”

The prime minister reiterated his government’s position that the case of CIA operative Raymond Davis would be resolved in the best national interest and according to the aspirations of the nation and that no fake documents were being prepared to grant him diplomatic immunity or any shady deals being made behind the scenes against public sentiment and law of the land.

Referring to the murder of minorities affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti early this month, he said that any lapse in investigations “shall not be ignored” and those “held responsible for any slackness on their part should be taken to task”.

The prime minister took the cabinet into confidence about his recent meeting with Marc Grossman, the new US representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, who he said was reminded that long-term Pakistan-US relationship “cannot be adversely affected by isolated acts of individuals and the two countries should remain focused on eliminating the bane of extremism from this region”.

Ms Ashiq Awan told reporters that Interior Minister Rehman Malik had briefed the cabinet on his talks with MQM leader Altaf Hussain in London and hoped that the MQM would avoid giving deadlines for the acceptance of its demands and remain part of the PPP-led coalition.

The decisions taken by the cabinet included a go-ahead to the defence ministry to hold talks with Chinese officials on an offer from China to sell six submarines to Pakistan, approval of a draft legislation to amend the Pakistan Bar Councils Act 1973 to enable both the federal and provincial governments to provide financial support to all provincial and district bar councils, and insertion of section 95A in the Security Exchange Corporation of Pakistan Act to allow right of purchase and retention of shares.

The cabinet ratified an annual US financial assistance of $1.5 billion coming though the Kerry-Lugar law under which Pakistan will receive a total of $7.5 billion over the next five years.

The meeting was informed by the foreign affairs ministry that some 4,900 Pakistanis had been evacuated from crisis-hit Libya and Pakistan’s embassy in Tripoli was in touch with the remaining stranded Pakistanis.

During a periodical review of price hike, the cabinet was informed that the inflation rate, which stood at 15.61 per cent in Dec last year, had been brought down to 12.6 per cent. Bank borrowings, which stood at Rs375 billion six months ago, had been reduced to only Rs80 billion.