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  • Infighting between Tareen, Qureshi and Asad Umar damaged PTI: Fawad

    Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry File Photo Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry

    Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry has said that infighting between Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Planning Minister Asad Umar and PTI leader Jahangir Tareen has had an adverse impact on the party and has been one of the main reasons behind Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision not going according to plan.

    “There were a lot of expectations from PTI and Imran Khan,” Chaudhry said in an interview for Voice of America. “The public had not elected us or the prime minister to fix nuts and bolts but to reform the system.”

    “When the Panama case was resolved I and few others had a chance to speak to Imran Khan and at that time I felt his ideas were very clear when it came to reforms,” he said.

    The minister added, “The way he said the chief ministers had become dictators in Sindh and the finance commission award should be [implemented] along with police reforms and judicial reforms, it was very clear at that time what Imran Khan’s vision was."

    Chaudhry said that problems arose when the government was formed and differences between Umar, Tareen and Qureshi increased. "These differences pushed the entire political class out of the game altogether."

    “Consequently, when a political vacuum was created, it was filled by people who have nothing to do with politics,” he said.

    The minister said that just having ideas is not enough, "you have to form a team which brings the ideas to fruition".

    "When Imran Khan's core team was shaken, the new people to have replaced them were not in agreement with the [premier's] ideas and still aren't," he said.

    When asked why despite having the political might of Qureshi and Pervez Khattak in the Cabinet, things turned out the way they had, the science and technology minister said they tried to have Tareen and Umar reconcile their differences but it could not happen.

    “When [Asad] Umar became the finance minister, [Jahangir] Tareen had him removed as the finance minister. Then when Umar came back [to the cabinet] he had Tareen removed. Similarly, Qureshi met Tareen to talk things over, but nothing could materialise,” Chaudhry said.