ISLAMABAD: At least 16 members of the federal, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) cabinets have been shown the door by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for a variety of reasons over the past two years.
They were removed on the express orders of Prime Minister Imran Khan. Some of them staged a comeback after sometime with his sanction while others failed to secure reinstatement and are in the wilderness. They have been mum since then, hoping that they will be restored.
The latest dismissal emerged on Sunday when Punjab Wildlife and Fisheries Minister Malik Asad Khokhar was sacked. In the backdrop of simultaneous transfer of Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD) Secretary Dr Shoaib Akbar and Lahore Commissioner Asif Bilal Lodhi, Chief Minister Usman Buzdar sought Khokhar’s resignation. The minister was accused of misuse of power by recommending Lodhi’s posting as commissioner, who, by virtue of his office, became the chairperson of the Lahore Ring Road Authority. Khokhar stated that he stepped down to give time to his constituency. The construction of Phase-III of the Ring Road is stalled since long.
A week earlier, KP chief minister’s adviser on information Ajmal Wazir was terminated. He had to go on a sleazy charge – he was heard in an alleged leaked audio clip settling “commission” with an advertising agency. He later attributed his involvement in the sordid affair to an unspecified conspiracy.
Prior to his ouster, Ajmal Wazir was giving back-to-back daily briefings on COVID-19 situation in KP, also harshly taking on the PTI’s detractors. Originally, he was associated with the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) and used to aggressively defend it in TV programmes. He was an unelected adviser.
Before him, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan was giving the marching order as the federal adviser on information. As she was detached from the cabinet position, she was accused of financial malpractices which she repudiated but in a mild tone. She has been absolutely unspeaking since then. Keeping quiet, she hopes, will pay and she might be accommodated in the government again. She too was an unelected adviser. Senator Shibli Faraz replaced her as the information minister. For a long time, she put up an extraordinarily stout defence of the government in a highly aggressive manner and persisted with disparagement of its antagonists.
Firebrand Fayyazul Hassan Chohan was removed as Punjab’s information minister after, what a Chief Minister Usman Buzdar spokesman said at the time, his derogatory remarks directed against the Hindu community in March 2019. In July last, he was re-inducted in the cabinet and given the information portfolio that was held for a brief period by Samsam Bokhari and Mian Aslam Iqbal. Both these ministers considered the ministry too heavy for them to hold because of their disposition.
Aamer Mahmood Kayani was sacked as the federal health minister in April last year after a serious faux pas over the drug scandal that also resulted in a massive hike in the prices of medicines. However, in July that year he was made PTI’s central secretary general.
Over three months back, Punjab Food Minister Samiullah Chaudhry was terminated in the wake of release of the report of the inquiry commission on wheat. Since then, he has not been heard. As the damning findings became public, he stated that he has been maligned as part of a conspiracy.
In December 2018, Senator Azam Swati had to go, fearing disqualification proceedings by the then Supreme Court Chief Justice, Mian Saqib Nisar, over allegations he played a role in the transfer of the federal capital’s police chief after a beating incident of a poor tribal family near his Islamabad farmhouse. The police official's transfer took place after Swati’s son registered a case against the family of slum dwellers for allegedly trespassing on his land. Five people, including two women, were arrested for trespassing on the land and beating up Swati’s guards. However, they were released after a day’s detention as police said a settlement had been reached between the minister and the detained family. A few months later, Swati made it to the cabinet once again.
Sibtain Khan was ousted in June 2019 as the minister for Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries in Punjab after he was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for awarding a multi-billion-dollar contract to an alleged fake company in 2007 when he was serving as the provincial minister for mines and minerals during the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) government.
He had allegedly awarded a contract for extracting minerals in the Chiniot district to a company of his choice. He earned bail in September the same year and was re-inducted in the cabinet in Jan, 2020.
Aleem Khan quit the position of senior Punjab minister after he was caught by the NAB in February last year in connection with the investigations into assets beyond known sources of income and pertaining to an offshore company. He was granted bail in September and was taken in the cabinet again in April this year.
In September last, Dr Shahbaz Gill was relieved of the post of the Punjab government spokesman on the chief minister’s orders. He was then shifted to the federal government where he kept defending the prime minister, acting as his un-appointed spokesman for eight months. Finally, he was nominated his Special Assistant on Political Communication in honorary capacity in May this year. Regardless of his post, which has been introduced for the first time in Pakistan, he continues to act as the premier’s spokesman.
In April last year, Asad Umar left the federal cabinet when he was removed as the finance minister after serving this office for eight months. He refused to accept the energy portfolio as offered by the premier. At the time, he said in a tweet that as part of a cabinet reshuffle, the prime minister desired that I take the energy minister portfolio instead of finance. “However, I have obtained his consent to not take any cabinet position.” In November that year, Asad Umar made his way back to the federal cabinet and was sworn in as the minister for planning and development. His predecessor in the planning ministry Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar was shifted to the National Food Security Ministry.
In January this year, three KP ministers - Atif Khan, a long-time favorite of the prime minister whom he wanted to make chief minister after the 2018 general elections, Shahram Tarakai (Atif’s cousin and brother-in-law) and Shakeel Ahmed - were dismissed from the cabinet on the charge of “bypassing” the leadership in an attempt to secure support of power brokers for bringing a no-trust motion against Chief Minister Mahmood Khan.
In September 2018, Babar Awan handed down his resignation as adviser after the NAB filed a reference against him for his alleged involvement in inordinate delay in construction of the 525MW Nandipur power plant. After his acquittal, he was taken back in the cabinet in April this year.
Sometime after their sacking, they met Imran Khan and vowed to continue their support to the PTI. They denied they were conspiring against the chief minister. Since then, they are absolutely silent, hoping they will return to the cabinet.
While the PTI governments sacked ministers or aides and accepted some of them back in the cabinet after sometime, there have been no such developments in Sindh and Balochistan (ruled by the Pakistan People’s Party and a multiparty coalition) except a couple of changes of portfolios in Sindh.
