PRIME Minister Imran Khan has lived up to his commitment
to make his cabinet colleagues answerable on the basis of assigned tasks to them. A red letter has been issued to 26 ministries and divisions warning them of the critical delay in implementation of the tasks given to them that were meant for completion in thirty days. In a sign of firmness not to show any leniency in this regard, the PM has asked them to complete these tasks within the stipulated time as no extension would be given.
The strategy adopted by the Prime Minister is the surest way to improve performance, efficiency and service delivery by the federal ministries and divisions. Every ministry has been given clear targets and deadlines to achieve them, leaving no ambiguity and room for lethargic bureaucracy to ignore them easily. Red-tape, lethargy and care-free attitude have been stumbling blocks in exploiting the full potential of ministries, divisions and subordinate departments. There is a chain of command and results should have been achieved without interventions from the PM Office but the way these ministries and divisions have treated the assignments given to them by the highest forum of the country speaks volumes about the ground situation. The question arises if the Prime Minister can issue reminders and warnings to ministries then why not the Ministers and Secretaries concerned to their subordinates to produce desired results. One can imagine the working and efficiency of the ministries by the fact that the assignments given to them included petty and routine things like provision of the list of positions lying vacant at all levels for framing or update of the recruitment rules; provision of the list of positions lying vacant at all levels that could be re-designated, rationalized or abolished and provision of list of officers/officials eligible for promotion but not being promoted due to various reasons. These are things that should be readily available with every ministry, division and department. The real test of their efficiency and output would be to assign them tasks like resolution of problems of the people that they face while dealing with different ministries and organizations. We hope that the PM Office would go a step further in framing a list of problems and issues relating to each ministry that are directly concerned with the people and give timelines for their satisfactory resolution.
