وزیراعظم عمران خان ٹیکنوکریٹس کے نرغے میں

When the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government came to power under Imran Khan after the 2018 general elections, it claimed that it would provide economic prosperity and a better standard of living to the people by introducing effective governance with a limited cabinet.

But the government has not even completed its first year when the government's performance has come under fire due to rising inflation. Elected governments do not tolerate such criticism for long. The same thing happened this time.

The upheaval in the federal cabinet was not sudden. Khachri had been cooking for several days but the story came to light on April 15 in the form of a news leak on various television channels and it was said that important changes would be made in the federal cabinet, including Finance Minister Asad Omar. But in the evening, government spokesmen denied the news of the change and PEMRA took notice of the broadcast of the false news against the relevant TV channels.

There was silence for two days, but on the third day, Asad Omar shared the first news of the change with journalists in Parliament House. He was there from the Prime Minister's Secretariat to preside over the Energy Committee meeting of the National Assembly. As soon as he saw the journalists, he said that the Prime Minister had offered him the ministry of petroleum but he refuse

Shortly afterwards, journalists began receiving phone calls from the Prime Minister's Secretariat saying that the cabinet reshuffle was not limited to Asad Omar. In fact, the government was trying to dispel the impression created by Assad Omar's unexpected response to the Ministry of Petroleum. Surprisingly, the portfolios of the ministers were changed and three new special assistants were also appointed.

The most important of these changes are the replacement of Asad Umar with Abdul Hafeez Sheikh in the Ministry of Finance, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Brigadier (retd) Ijaz Shah as Home Minister, Fawad Chaudhry as Minister for Information and Science and Technology and Ghulam Sarwar Khan as Minister of Petroleum. But in addition to these internal cabinet reshuffles, three unelected figures, Firdous Ashiq Awan, Dr Nadeem Babar and Dr Zafarullah Mirza, were also appointed Special Assistant to the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Imran Khan's main slogan was change. Within eight months of the formation of the government with this slogan, the PTI government had to wash its hands of two ministers at the Center, namely Azam Khan Swati and Babar Awan.

Azam Swati had to leave the ministry due to his involvement in a land grabbing scandal in Islamabad and the jailing of a poor family in his neighborhood. Had to leave

Similarly, Aleem Khan, the provincial minister in Punjab, also resigned from the ministry due to his arrest in the NAB case, while Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chauhan was sent home for his controversial statements. In other words, in a span of eight months, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had to wash its hands of four of its ministers who were not fixed in the frame of change.

On April 18, Asad Omar was the fifth PTI minister to go home, apparently because he had not solved his economic problems. Prime Minister Imran Khan wanted to keep him as a minister anyway, but Asad Umar also resigned from the ministry.

In recent years, Asad Umar was the second person after Naveed Qamar to become directly elected Finance Minister in the National Assembly. Naveed Qamar was appointed Finance Minister in the last term of the PPP, but five months later he too was removed from the Finance Ministry and transferred to the Petroleum Ministry. Asad Omar held the portfolio of the Ministry of Finance for just three months more than Naveed Qamar.

After Asad Umar, Abdul Hafeez Sheikh is being given the post of Federal Minister for Finance as an advisor. A graduate of Boston University in the United States, Abdul Hafeez Sheikh is a technocrat who has served as investment minister under former military president Pervez Musharraf and then the PPP.

The notification of appointment of Tadam Tahrir Abdul Hafeez Sheikh has not been issued but notifications have been issued to Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Dr Nadeem Babar and Dr Zafarullah Mirza as Special Assistants to the Prime Minister.

Firdous Ashiq Awan has been appointed as Advisor to the Ministry of Information. She lost the last general election to Sialkot. Dr Nadeem Babar is a former head of Orient Power, a company appointed by the PTI government in October to head an energy task force. He has now been posted as Special Assistant to the Energy Minister.

Dr. Zafarullah Mirza, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister, who has been posted in the health department, is known to few in the party. He is said to have been working in the health sector abroad for a long time.

Surprisingly, most of the unelected government aides are from the media. Firdous Ashiq Awan has just joined the list, but Iftikhar Durrani and Yousuf Baig Mirza are already looking after the media, which shows that the government faces a bigger challenge than the economy and other challenges to improve its image through the media.

If Asad Omar is removed from the cabinet, the total number of federal ministers in the cabinet will be reduced to 24, five ministers of state, four advisers and 13 special assistants. That means the total number of cabinet members has reached 46.

In this process, if the number of unelected persons is counted, it is found that in the 46-member cabinet, the number of unelected advisers and special assistants, ie technocrats with the rank of federal minister, has increased to 17. All these people are looking at the most important issues.

According to Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, head of the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development, the unelected aides in the cabinet are mere addresses. The real problem is the roots, which is a very serious issue.

He also said that it does not matter if the unelected persons are in accordance with the provisions of the constitution.

Ahmed Bilal Mehboob's thought-provoking remarks have their place, but in practice the most important matters of the federal cabinet are being looked after by these unelected people, of whom Abdul Hafeez Sheikh will be an important addition.

Earlier, Shehzad Akbar, a British-educated but unelected special assistant barrister, was overseeing the ongoing accountability process in the country. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister for Political Affairs Naeem-ul-Haq is also an unelected figure.

It is clear that with each passing time, Prime Minister Imran Khan is moving away from elected members and closer to unelected technocrats.

Prime Minister Imran Khan says that he has brought changes when he is not performing well and whoever will not perform better and will not be better for the country will change it but the question is that more unelected people Will the Prime Minister achieve the desired results by including him in the cabinet