Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Establishment Muhammad Shehzad Arbab has said that the performance review meetings of the ministries would help them to achieve their quarterly and annual targets. According to him, the quarterly review reports on implementation on Performance Agreements of the Federal Government for the Year 2020-21 would be submitted to the Prime Minister in coming days. Ministries including Religious Affairs, Cabinet Division, Information and Broadcasting, Revenue Division, Inter-Provincial Coordination, and Parliamentary Affairs Division gave a detailed briefing on their performance during the meeting. All the ministries are to present their performance reports during the first two quarters of the financial year 2020-21.
In October 2018, after assuming office Prime Minister Imran Khan decided to judge the performance of all ministries and independent Departments after every three months by holding review meetings on quarterly basis. After eight months, Prime Minister Imran Khan had first major reshuffle in the cabinet based on performance of the Ministries, resulting in replacement of Asad Umar, Brig (Retired) Ijaz Shah, Azam Swati, Fawad Chaudhry and several other Ministers assumed their new portfolios in the Cabinet. The first ever performance review put a great impact on the Ministers, Secretaries, and all bureaucracy. They came to knew that each office holder must prove his worth by his performance. But unfortunately, Prime Minister Imran Khan could not materialize similar strict performance review after this first attempt.
Actually, after this first review, Bureaucracy remained successful in realizing the Top political leadership that their performance is hindering due to a continuous fear of government’s tough accountability and NAB’s prosecution, therefore, most of the bureaucrats prefer not to do such thing which proved to be limitation for themselves in future. The Ministers argued that due to frequent changes in position, they are unable to perform their duties because it takes time to understands their new responsibilities and change also effect the efficiency in other way. So, after this first experience Imran Khan never took similar hard stock anymore, he remained limited to only oral criticism on the ministries, absence of any practical punitive measures, the Ministers and bureaucrats turned into irresponsive and careless. The government’s officials reassume the old practices in the era of Naya Pakistan. Therefore, the people of Pakistan are quite right to say that it is actually old Pakistan except the Slogan only orated by the PTI leadership in official ceremonies.
