Minister says PTI inherited flawed system

PESHAWAR: Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra said on Wednesday that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government inherited a flawed system from the past governments and they could not clear the mess of 70 years just in seven months.He made the remarks in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly in response to the general debate on posting and transfer policy of the government.Taimur Saleem Jhagra, who was born into a political family and is the son of senior bureaucrat Saleem Khan, said he had been in the province for the last one and half year when he was reminded that the PTI had been in power for the last five years and seven months in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.The opposition members argued that despite ruling the province for well over five years, the provincial ministers blamed the previous governments for “maladministration and incompetence” of the government departments.“We welcome the positive criticism of the opposition but we are working to introduce a proper mechanism to ensure good governance, transparency and merit in all the government departments,” the finance minister said and claimed that the PTI government had made posting and transfers of the government officials purely on merit.“Merit means recruiting qualified persons against government jobs and then posting and transferring under the formula of the right man for the right job,” he said and added that the PTI government was working for improving the institutions and government departments.However, the finance minister could not satisfy the opposition members and they termed his remarks a lame excuse. They asked Chief Minister Mahmood Khan to give a reasonable response to their criticism of postings and transfers of government officials.Chief Minister Mahmood Khan assured the opposition that their suggestions and positive criticism would be welcomed in a bid to ensure good governance and uphold merit and transparency.Earlier, Opposition Leader Akram Khan Durrani said the provincial government had posted many junior officers against key posts and many senior and competent officers were either made officers on special duty (OSDs).“The government should stop undue interference in the provincial departments and let the honest and competent officials perform their duties,” he said, adding the opposition would support the PTI government to uphold the policy of merit and transparency.Awami National Party’s Khushdil Khan Advocate, Jamaat-e-Islami’s Inayatullah Khan and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Sardar Muhammad Yousaf also participated in a general debate on posting and transferring policy of the government officials.They asked the government to stop “interference, nepotism and favouritism” in the government departments.

from The News International - Peshawar https://ift.tt/2uxx8oo