Tazeen Akhtar
Prime Minister Imran Khan has not presented any award to Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, in so called performance of ministers ceremony held on 10 Feb in which Asad Umar, Sheikh Rasheed, Shereen Mazari and Murad Saeed have received awards of the best performance.
We don’t know what is the performance of the above mentioned ministers. Asad Umar was replaced only after a year of PTI gov because he failed to perform. At NCOC, it was combined effort of different ministries including ministry of health regulations and administration level contribution was more important than any minister.
Sheikh Rasheed’s performance can be seen in continued attacks in the country in last two months. It is reflected in increasing crime in Rawalpindi and safe city of Islamabad. Shereen Mazari has never been seen in any international forum regarding human rights. Her attached departments, commission and authority are confused what to do because they do not have salaries and budget. Murad Saeed can not share how many miles of new roads or infrastructure he has constructed in the country.
On the other side, Shah Mahmood Qureshi performed very well in his ministry by engaging all powerful capitals and regions with Pakistan. Shah Mahmood Qureshi can be seen every where in the world from UNO to SCO, from Middle East to Central Asia, from Europe to Africa. Latest, OIC foreign ministers conference Islamabad 19 Dec and further another in March 2022. SMQ tackled aftermath of Afghanistan on diplomatic front amicably. His visits to six neighboring countries were successful. SMQ maintained a balance in relations with China and USA that is very complicated thing to do. His visits abroad, online conferences, telephone calls, meetings at MOFA are long story of his efforts to build close cooperation with maximum countries within limited resources. No doubt he performed the best among all ministers.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has some personality characteristics known to all in his party and around. When we were in childhood and would play cricket, the captain post was reserved for who is the owner of bat and ball. No one could tell him anything and Yes was the only reply to all his utterances if you had to remain in the team and wanted to play.
We have seen speculations and rumors, some in articles, some in social media posts and many in youtubers’ charged analysis if we can term them analysis. If we trust these youtubers , SMQ is no more the foreign minister and not in PTI. Rumors were about SMQ is the substitute of Imran Khan in PTI.
Yes! SMQ is the best in present lot of PTI regime. He is seasoned politician. Most experienced among the PTI walas that include Aamir Liaqat type, Faisal Wadda type and Murad Saeed type. We wonder why Zartaj Gul has not received the best performance award who did not know what COVID-19 stands for. This is the cabinet of Imran Khan in which SMQ has always seen by the press, media, society and the world as one of few best persons. The rest is all rust or corrupt. Short history of Long failures of PTI regime is full of follies of ministers or frauds of ministers.
To keep SMQ away from Best Performance Award clearly proves that Imran Khan feels something for and from SMQ. Imran said “I will be more dangerous”, but now we can see that he himself feeling danger or challenge at least from within his own team. Instead of encouraging SMQ for his performance, depriving him of his credit will not serve to any goal set by the PM. It will further solidify the impression that he is not capable of leading a team.
(Author is Editor of Urdu newspaper Daily Azkaar Islamabad. He has been Resident Editor of Daily Khabrain and Daily Jinnah Islamabad. He publishes English monthly “Pakistan in the World” magazine and runs current affairs, diplomatic/ international website www.pakistanintheworld.pk. The author is regularly writing on PTI since its inception in late 90s and hosted Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi in his office in 2003)
