Page 10 - Pakistan Link - April 26, 2019

P10 – PAKISTAN LINK – APRIL 26, 2019 OPINION
n By M Ziauddin Mindboggling Shake-up experienced people like foreign minister Shah

ight months is too short a period to Mahmood Qureshi.
And to let Asad learn the ropes fi rst, he
judge the performance of a newly could have been given the minister of state
Eelected government. More so if the for fi nance portfolio and some experienced
new government is headed by a party that technocrat with government experience the
has never seen or worked federal fi nance portfolio, as Razzak Daud the
our bureaucratic system adviser on commerce who has experience of
from inside. government as he was in Musharraf’s cabinet.
Even more so, if the When it fi rst came to power in 1972, the
party is headed by someone PPP too was an outsider, but Prime Minister
who has never walked the ZA Bhutto was an insider. He knew the sys-
labyrinth that is called the tem and had worked it. When Benazir Bhutto
Government. And it would, came to power in 1988 heading the PPP which
indeed, be extremely unfair to judge the per- had remained in wilderness for over ten years,
formance of this government’s fi nance min- she kept the fi nance portfolio in her hand but a
ister, Umar, who has not completed even one technocrat of the caliber of Wasim Jaff ery was
full year looking aft er the demanding port- appointed as her adviser on fi nance.
folio. Normally a new government’s perfor- Asad’s successor, Dr Abdul Hafeez
mance starts getting judged aft er about 18 or Sheikh, is more of a technocrat than a politi-
even 24 months in the job. cian. He holds a doctorate in Economics from
But Asad Umar, the fi nance minister (as Boston University and had been fi nance min-
of the writing of this piece) was not allowed ister of Sindh (2000-2002), federal minister of
to complete even nine months in the job. Th is privatization (2003-2006), adviser on fi nance
does not mean that one is pleading with the (2010).
PM to let Asad continue in the job. Th is is his and uncertainty would last until September have written the economic part of the party’s He joined the PPP in 2012 and was elect-
prerogative. But the PM is not known to dis- 2019. election manifesto. ed Senator the same year. During his associa-
card his favorites so soon. To discard the fi nance minister at such a Politicians come and go but bureaucracy tion with fi rst the government of Musharraf
Asad was his blue-blooded favorite. Re- juncture appears to be a decision that could be constitutes the permanent government that and then that of president Zardari, his perfor-
member Mansur Akhtar? He was perhaps the regarded as a well-thought out and astute one. then makes up the system. Only those politi- mance was not all that scintillating.
most consistent failure in Imran’s eleven. But What is more mindboggling is the fact that cians who have worked this system for some So, his choice in place of Asad Umar ap-
Kaptan continued to have this favorite crick- Asad Umar walked into the fi nance portfolio time do know how to handle the permanent pears more intriguing because one is not sure
eter of his included in the national team no seamlessly aft er the elections because he was government, that is how to make it work in if he has ever met PM Imran Khan, which
matter how many times he failed. We saw the touted all through the several months leading accordance with the elected government’s po- makes one wonder if he was, indeed, the PM’s
last of him only aft er the 1987 World Cup. to the 2018 elections as the economic wizard, litical agenda. Th is bureaucracy is very good at choice for this important portfolio and that
Th e federal budget is almost around the the fi nancial guru of the PTI by Imran Khan making rings around novices. Th at is perhaps too at such a crucial moment in the PTI’s ten-
corner. An IMF Program is seemingly in the himself. what has actually happened. ure.
last stages of being fi nalized. Th e FATF sword In fact, Asad is supposed to have draft ed Perhaps, being too new to the system the (Th e writer served as executive editor of
of Damocles is still hanging over our heads the PTI’s economic agenda and also said to PM should have fi lled his fi rst cabinet with Th e Express Tribune from 2009 to 2014)
n By Abbas Nasir Project PTI in Peril? sage was given to the prime minister.

to replace his fi nance minister by the
he manner in which the for false reporting. Th e regulator, In all likelihood, he was persuaded
cabinet was reshuffl ed last echoing the government position, argument that it would serve his and
Tweek has raised the inevita- also accused the channel manage- his government’s best interests.
ble question: is project PTI begin- ment of creating chaos among the Even then the prime minister,
ning to unravel? It public and maligning the govern- who has held up Asad Umar as one
is diffi cult to say ment functionaries. of the brightest stars of his party even
for sure, but the One of the channels served with since the latter joined the PTI seven
state of the econo- the notice appeared so confi dent due years ago, allowed his key lieutenant
my has been caus- to the ‘credibility’ of its source, it re- the dignity of announcing his own
ing jitters in the fused to remove from its website the departure rather than removing him
corridors of power news even as its CEO and that of the via an offi cial statement.
for weeks now. other channel were summoned to Others were not so lucky. Amir
Interestingly enough, up to the Pemra on April 22 to explain their Kiani’s replacement was publicized in
eve of the reshuffl e which left the position. Do you see that happening a statement. A source said Kiani had
fi nance minister Asad Umar and now? to go because of the spiraling medi-
health minister Amir Kiani with- No. Not aft er the events of cine prices some of which were at-
out a cabinet position and several Th ursday, April 18, vindicated these tributable to his decisions.
other ministers in new ministries, channels’ position. It was not just Petroleum minister Ghulam
top government spokesman Fawad these channels. Some ‘analysts’, who Sarwar was shift ed to aviation be-
Chaudhry was vehemently denying are also known to have access to the cause he is said to have mishandled
any such move. thinking of the powers that be, were net’s spokesman. Although addressing the media the LNG orders and sharp rises in
In fact, speaking earlier in the saying the same thing even as they On the eve of his exit from the the following day aft er he’d tweeted domestic gas prices. News reports
week, Mr Chaudhry, who has been were unsure of the reshuffl e’s timing. cabinet, the fi nance minister him- confi rmation that he was leaving the suggest he is unhappy with the move
moved from the information to the Sources say that ‘messages’ con- self appeared on a TV program and government as his ‘captain wants to and may not agree to head the avia-
science and technology ministry, de- veyed to the prime minister through spoke at length about the long-term see me in another cabinet role’ he was tion ministry.
scribed all news of ministerial chang- the media and other means did not prospects of the economy. He’d just not interested in, he also said he was Perhaps, one the most contro-
es as ‘misinformation’. seem to yield the desired result. To returned aft er negotiating a package made aware of the decision late the versial additions to the cabinet was
Two TV channels which were the contrary, categorical rebuttals with the IMF in Washington. If he night before. Nadeem Babar’s who’s been made in
reporting the reshuffl e, were served were issued by a minister designated was aware of the impending decision, Another source said that the de- charge of the petroleum ministry de
notices by the Pemra, the regulator, as the prime minister’s and the cabi- he gave no hint of it. cision was taken aft er an angry mes- PROJECT, P26
n By Sikander Shah A New Strategy India is openly violating numerous
Lahore, Pakistan UN resolutions on Kashmir. Under
India’s constitutional absorp- UNCIP’s resolution of Jan 5, 1949,
he BJP government has tion of occupied Jammu and Kash- “all persons (other than citizens of
unequivocally stated that mir in the 1950s remains illegal the State) … shall be required to
Tit will repeal Articles 35-A under international law because the leave the State” and “[a]ll citizens of
and 370 of the Indian constitution princely state (that includes Azad the State who have left … will be in-
if it is voted back Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan) was to vited and be free to return”. It is clear
into power. Ar- decide its own fate through a plebi- from this language that pending a
ticle 370 provides scite carried out, as outlined under plebiscite, any attempts to change
an autonomous UN Security Council Resolution the demographics of Kashmir or
status to Jammu 47, under the auspices of the United eff ect a transfer of its population
and Kashmir and Nations Commission for India and would be illegal.
Article 35-A pre- Pakistan (UNCIP) formed under Apart from the relevant UN
vents settlements UN Security Council Resolution resolutions, Pakistan can also rely
or the acquisition of immovable 39. Nevertheless, today, any protec- on the Shimla Agreement, a bilateral
property by non-Kashmiris in the tions taken away from the Kashmiri treaty between Pakistan and India,
occupied territory. Th ese articles people or attempts to change the de- to highlight the latter’s violations of
solely authorize the [occupied mographics of occupied Kashmir by international law. Th is treaty was en-
Kashmir] legislature to defi ne “the India would seriously compromise over Kashmir, violating Pakistan’s Th rough these measures, such tered into in 1972, aft er the promul-
classes of persons who are, or shall the right to self-determination and due process and international legal as its endeavor to defi ne (or rede- gation of Article 370 and 35-A, and
be, permanent residents of … Jam- human rights of the Kashmiri peo- rights as a recognized state party to fi ne) the permanent residency of In- prohibits all changes to the status
mu and Kashmir”. ple; it would also alter the status quo the Kashmir dispute. dia-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, STRATEGY, P26
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