ISLAMABAD
The business community, which was reportedly perturbed over the attitude of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, has welcomed Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s move of removing Dar from his post as chairman of cabinet’s Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) and other committees.
According to a well-known business leader – who did not want to be named -, the decision of new prime minister was very right, to minimise the role of finance minister, who earlier was heading dozens of committees along with ECC.
“Businessmen were largely unhappy with the way the finance minister was treating them. He has been treating us like his personal employee,” said the business leader, adding that the representatives of major trade bodies and association had lauded the decision during Prime Minister Abbasi’s recent visit to Karachi.
“There has been a one man show in the economic affairs of the country for the last four years. We hope that the new prime minister will change the environment for a better result in remaining term of the present government,” he said.
According to sources, there was already a lack of cordial relation between Dar and Abbasi, since the former considered him more senior and close to the ruling family.
Besides, the new prime minister also wants maximum hold on important decision making bodies and committees. The reason of minimising responsibilities of the finance minister, as sources claim, could be the expected references of National Accountability Bureau against him, for possessing assets beyond his known sources of income, in accordance with the Supreme Court’s verdict which disqualified former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
It may be recalled here that Abbasi on August 10 had removed Ishaq Dar from his post as chairman of the ECC of the cabinet. The newly-elected prime minister will serve as the chairman of the ECC after Dar’s removal. As per the notification issued on August 10, 2017, five ministries including railways, power, communications, statistics, water resources, and privatisation have also been added to the ECC.
The ECC has traditionally been chaired by the federal finance minister and the prime minister is not usually involved in its affairs. Its members include the ministers of 10 key federal ministries.
Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had delegated all economic and financial powers to Ishaq Dar who reportedly headed at one time more than four dozen committees, including those on legal, constitutional and political affairs.
According to sources, PM Abbasi was also moving forward to head or replace the chairmanship of other important committees including Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec), Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE), Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP) and Cabinet Committee on Restructuring (CCoR) and other committees on economic issues, economic coordination, energy, privatisation and restructuring etc.
All these committees would now be headed by Prime Minister Abbasi as chairman, while Dar would continue to be a member of these committees. Dar, however, may head these committees in absence of the prime minister.
