By Uzma Zafar
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) led federal government has decided to get back Asad Umar in the cabinet.
As per details, senior PTI leader and former finance minister Asad Umar will be given ministry of Planning and Special Initiative.
This was announced by Special Assistant to PM Firdous Ashiq Awan in a tweet.
Current minister for planning Khusro Bakhtiar will be given ministry of petroleum.
Notification in this regard would be issued soon.
Earlier, Asad Umar quitted federal cabinet saying that Prime Minister Imran Khan wanted him to take over as energy minister but he didn’t believe that was the right move.
I always did and still believe that Imran Khan will build a Naya Pakistan, he had said.
He said he knew nothing of the politics behind the decision to change his cabinet and said he wasn’t interested in them either.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan Monday directed his cabinet members to suggest and identify new measures aimed at public welfare by providing further relief to the masses.
He viewed that there were a number of issues over which without incurring any expenditures, the people could be facilitated through prompt administrative steps.
The prime minister issued the directions on the reports submitted to the PM Office by different ministries and departments regarding steps taken for the public welfare and facilitation, PM Office Media Wing in a press release said.
Different ministries and departments had identified at total of 64 new different steps for public facilitation and these steps were in addition to the regular responsibilities of the ministries and departments. Out of these steps, implementation on 35 had been made whereas work on the remaining 29 other areas was in progress.
The purpose of these steps was to improve the living standards of the common man by providing them succour and relief, and solving those issues which had been neglected in the past.
Under the prime minister’s direction, different ministries regularly identified various new measures in each meeting of the cabinet.
The Ministry of Communication informed that for the first time in the country’s history, a system had been introduced under which remittances sent by the overseas Pakistanis had been dispatched to their families without additionally charging them.
Under the ministry, access to the motorways and its uses were made easier for the special persons (suffering from physical disabilities).
The Ministry of Information had directed the Pakistan Television Corporation to allocate airtime for news about the latest weather updates for different segments of the society, especially for the farmers’ community.
To facilitate females, all the offices of National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) offices would receive them on Friday, besides other working days, which had been especially specified for them, so that they could visit these offices without any difficulty.
A report regarding governance had been provided to all the cabinet members by the PM’s Special Assistant on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation.
