Buzdar in action: Unelected members wrong to underestimate Buzdar

ISLAMABAD: Unelected members of Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar’s team are wrong to underestimate him and take him too lightly as he has proven that he is armed with the requisite authority to show them the door if he is not satisfied with their performance.

However, while seeking resignations from his unelected advisers, Buzdar has always sought Prime Minister Imran Khan’s prior permission. But in such cases, it has always been on his own initiative. He has been the one who has asked these aides to step down or face dismissal.

Buzdar, however, has been far more cautious in dealing with cabinet members or political assistants who happen to be members of the Punjab Assembly. This is largely because of the thin majority that his government has in the provincial legislature. If even a small number of Punjab lawmakers slip away, it has the potential of landing him in trouble in the assembly.

For instance, some of his ministers had been openly supporting estranged Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Jahangir Tareen, causing embarrassment to the party, but the chief minister has avoided sacking them or taking any stern action against them.

Punjab Minister for Management and Professional Development Noman Langrial, belonging to Sahiwal, who figures among the PTI lawmakers publicly siding with Tareen, has never been penalised for his dissent. The same is the case with Nazir Chohan, a parliamentary secretary hailing from Lahore, who has now repudiated his earlier association with the dissidents group. Both are members of the Punjab Assembly.

However, when it came to sorting out the unelected Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Dr Shahbaz Gill and Aun Chaudhry, the chief minister turned out to be tougher than he appears. Prior to ordering the ouster of all the three aides at various times, he first talked to the premier to get his go-ahead. Firdous Ashiq and Shahbaz Gill had to vacate their Punjab slots as they had become too big for their boots in Buzdar’s reckoning.

Samiulllah Chaudhry had to resign as the Punjab Food Minister in April last year in the wake of the release of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) report into the wheat scandal. His assertion that he voluntarily stepped down was not exactly true as he had been asked to quit. He has not been taken back in the cabinet.

Punjab ministers Abdul Aleem Khan and Sibtain Khan had to go after they were ordered by Imran Khan to stand down following their arrest by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in separate corruption scams. Both staged a comeback after they were released on bail by the Lahore High Court (LHC) a few months later.

Fayyazul Hassan Chohan’s case is different. More than once, his portfolio was reshuffled, once because of his derogatory remarks about the Hindu community and on other occasions due to his performance in the information field. After Firdous Ashiq’s departure, he may once again be given the information ministry. This was the second time that Chohan was stripped of the information portfolio when she was made the special assistant to the chief minister.

Chohan had been reinstated as the information minister only months after his first exit from this department. He had replaced Aslam Iqbal, who had excused himself from the charge. Sumsam Bokhari could not impress Buzdar as the information minister and was shifted to another portfolio. He and Aslam Iqbal found the job too arduous and tough.

Last April, Firdous Ashiq was removed as the special assistant to the prime minister on information as retired Lt Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa had come in. Bajwa left the post in October 2020. The fiery lady was then moved to Punjab where she has had to quit less than a year after serving as the aide to the chief minister on information. After the prime minister’s nod, Buzdar’s staff asked her to resign immediately or she would be terminated, informed circles said.

They said that the chief minister was not comfortable with her performance and claimed that she was even bypassing him in making announcements which he himself wanted to make.

When Fawad Chaudhry was recently made the federal information minister again, Firdous Ashiq had publicly disapproved of his appointment. Keeping in view the tense relations between the two, it is unlikely that she would be accorded any information assignment at the federal level.

During her days in Punjab, two controversial incidents took place that showed Firdous Ashiq’s volatile nature.. She was involved in a spat with then Sialkot assistant commissioner Sonia Sadaf and got into an ugly physical showdown with Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) lawmaker Qadir Khan Mandokhail on the set of a TV show. But these episodes did not apparently become the reason for her removal.

Last month, Firdous Ashiq submitted her resignation to run the PTI's by-election campaign in Sialkot but had later withdrawn it on the premier’s instructions, according to her. She downplayed the denial of her entry in the Punjab assembly when Ahsan Saleem Baryar, who was elected from Sialkot and for whom she had run the poll campaign, was to take oath.

Dr Shahbaz Gill had a high-profile information assignment in Punjab while working as one of the chief minister’s spokesmen. However, a time came when Buzdar was not satisfied with his performance and sought his exit from Punjab. Immediately after that, Dr Gill was made special assistant to Imran Khan on political communication in an honorary capacity.

The chief minister is yet to allocate the information portfolio to anyone, and it is also still to be decided whether or not Firdous Ashiq would be accommodated in the federal cabinet.