Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said that Prime Minister Imran had distributed certificates among his ten favourite ministers, which meant that he had expressed “no-confidence” in the rest of the members of the federal cabinet.
Addressing a workers’ convention in Multan, Bilawal said that the PM was busy distributing certificates among his ministers when he should be focusing on solving the people’s issues.
He vowed that the people of Pakistan would show PM Imran the reality of his government’s performance. “The certificate that you will receive from the people in the [next] elections, you suffered a trailer of that in the by-elections,” he said.
He went on to say that the prime minister had done great “injustice” with Multan. “He has the biggest cabinet in the country’s history, but only 10 of his ministers are deserving of praise.”
Bilawal said that Communications Minister Murad Saeed was awarded a certificate even though he failed to work on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
In an apparent reference to Asad Umar, he said that another minister from Karachi was fired and then kicked out from one ministry, but was now looking after the planning ministry.
He noted that Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi was not given a certificate, reiterating that it was an “injustice with Multan”. “On one hand they praise Pakistan’s foreign policy […] if it is so successful then where is the certificate?” he asked.
PPP Vice President Sherry Rehman blew off the entire move as a “joke with the nation”. “The government’s three-year performance is full of mismanagement, corruption and failures,” she said in a statement. “There is a crisis situation in every ministry.”
Rehman said there were question marks over the performance of several ministries, quipping whether any ministry was devoid of blame for creating a crisis. The senator said the prime minister could “certainly give appreciation certificates to ministers over excellent performance in cursing and accusing [the opposition]”.
“The nation will now give its opinion on the performance of the government and the ministers through the vote,” the senator said.
