ISLAMABAD: Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar on Monday held a second meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan within the last 24 hours, as talk of replacing the provincial chief executive is becoming louder even within the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) due to the former’s ‘failure’ in handling the affairs of the most important province.
Though none of the party leaders would publicly comment against the Punjab set-up, they would admit in background interviews with media channels that their government is failing in running the province.
According to a senior PTI leader, the party’s top leadership is dissatisfied with the performance of Buzdar and a majority within the PTI wants him to be replaced with a better and active political figure “but the question is: How?”
Requesting anonymity, the PTI leader told a media outfit that there were various groups of party leaders like ex-secretary general Jahangir Khan Tareen, Punjab Governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar, former provincial minister Abdul Aleem Khan and Punjab Information Minister Mian Aslam Iqbal.
In this situation, he said it was very difficult to bring all the groups on one page and build consensus on a single name for the coveted post.
Similarly, the PML-Q clearly stated on several occasions that it would reconsider its support to the PTI government in Punjab if the incumbent chief minister was replaced.
A source in the PTI’s core committee, which met in Islamabad on Sunday and discussed administrative failures in Punjab, said the issue had been raised in top party circles a couple of times. But, he added, such meetings and discussions were chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan just to have a feeling of the undercurrents in the party cadre but not for taking decisions.
“The decisions are taken solely by Imran Khan whether these are discussed in the core committee or central executive committee or not,” he said.
Some TV channels reported that after the core committee meeting in Islamabad on Sunday, PM Imran expressed his annoyance to Buzdar over ‘poor governance in Punjab’ and asked him to deliver even if he had to change any bureaucrat.
