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ISLAMABAD – Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday signed agreements with ministers to improve the performance of their ministries and governance system during the next two years.
Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister urged the cabinet members to exceed the targets set in the agreements in order to live up to the expectations of the masses. “We are ensuring that during our tenure, all the promises are met and all services delivered to the citizens,” he said in his address to the ceremony held here at the PM Secretariat. The prime minister said the high-performance delivery in the next two years would make a smooth way ahead for the government to succeed in general polls.
“I want our party to achieve a standard where an MNA wins, not on the basis of disbursement of development funds, but on the performance of the government,” he said.
Imran Khan asked the heads of ministries to achieve the performance goals by setting high aspirations and evaluation of their own highs and lows.
He mentioned that his government effectively tackled the side-by-side challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the economy.
PM directs timely release of funds for highway projects
He expressed confidence that his team would continue to work at full throttle.
He mentioned as the “biggest challenge” the persistent fight with a number of mafias that wanted a status quo for their vested interests.
He said the government wants to introduce this system in order to do away with the issue of rigging.
“Now the mafia has started opposing the use of EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) in the next general election because it had been the beneficiary of the existing system through corruption,” he said.
He pointed out that after 1970, every election was regarded as controversial but still no one wanted to rectify the problem.
Earlier, Special Assistant to PM on Establishment Shehzad Arbab said a total of 41 ministries had prepared 1,100 initiatives for the next two years. Of these, 426 initiatives will be completed by June 2022 and 488 by June 2023 while 176 running initiatives will supplement the overall delivery of ministries for the next two years and beyond.
He said the Performance Agreements had been finalized after a rigorous process of review and evaluation.
He said the exercise not only allowed the government to implement its agenda more effectively but also helped the ministers and secretaries to track progress within their divisions and objectively assess performance of their officers.
Under the Performance Agreements, all ministries have prepared work plans with a set of initiatives and quarterly targets to be achieved over the next two years.
These work plans have been reviewed by the Peer Review Committee (comprising senior officials of cross-sectoral ministries) for improvement, besides the feedback incorporated by the ministries before submission to the PM Office.
The process of quarterly performance review will enable the prime minister to keep track of his government performance.
This system will not only help all ministries set their annual work plans but also create space to embed the reform agenda into the government’s system.
The targets collectively reviewed quarterly through a digitized platform, will play a key role in identifying bottlenecks and addressing cross-ministerial coordination challenges.
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday directed timely release of funds for the highway projects to ensure connectivity, trade and employment opportunities for rural and urban areas.
Chairing a review meeting regarding progress on various projects of National Highway Authority (NHA), he said construction of quality highways will not only increase connectivity between the rural and the urban areas, it will also enhance trade and employment opportunities.
He noted that road infrastructure plays an important role for economic development, adding that roads of good standard would also reduce the cost of vehicle maintenance and import of petroleum products.
Imran Khan said he will personally monitor the progress on important and big communication projects on daily basis.
He directed to ensure release of funds for timely completion of projects.
The meeting was attended by Federal Minister for Communications Murad Saeed, Minister for Planning Asad Umar, Special Assistant Dr Shahbaz Gill, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Jahanzeb Khan, the NHA chairman and senior officials.
Giving a comparative review, Federal Minister for Communications Murad Saeed said only 645 km of roads were constructed by the previous government during 2013 and 2014. A total of 1,753 km of roads have been completed in the three years of the present government.
He said in terms of planning; only 858 km of roads were completed in three years of the previous government compared to the 6,118 km of roads completed during the same period of the present government.
The meeting was informed that NHA would complete 27 projects during this fiscal year. More than 3,000 km long roads are being constructed in Balochistan province.
It was highlighted that as per the prime minister’s vision of self-reliance, the projects were being completed through public-private partnerships instead of loans.
The meeting was given a detailed briefing on the progress on highways including from Rawalpindi to Kharian, Mianwali to Muzaffargarh and Hyderabad to Sukkur.