- Firdous says she doesn’t agree with Fawad
Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry on Saturday took a jibe at members of his own party and government, terming the ongoing friction between elected and non-elected members in the government a ‘cold war’.
Speaking to a local news outlet, the former information minister also spoke about haphazardness in the party. “Up till now, I believe there have been several political weaknesses in our decisions. There is definitely a need for improvement in decision-making. Several important decisions are taken and we don’t even get to know about them,” he said.
“At this, there is a cold war, I would say, of elected and non-elected people [within the government]. There are a lot of objections over the non-elected people. And these [objections] are worth giving importance to,” he said.
“Ultimately, it is the elected people who take decisions, not the non-elected. The decision-making should be left to the elected people,” he added.
Asked if the ‘cold war’ would continue, he said that “wars do not last that long” and that decisions regarding this should be taken soon.
In a cabinet reshuffle in April this year, Prime Minister Imran Khan had removed Chaudhry from the federal information ministry and handed him the science and technology portfolio, replacing him with Firdous Ashiq Awan as the information minister.
When asked about the cabinet reshuffle, Fawad acknowledged that the change of portfolios took place at the behest of non-elected people. He also said that he faced a lot of interference from non-elected members in his previous ministry.
Fawad also disagreed with allowing Shehbaz Sharif to go abroad. “If at this point you let Nawaz Sharif go abroad, your politics would fail.
“Shehbaz Sharif went abroad. I first said he should not be made Public Accounts Committee chairman, he was made PAC chairman. Then I said he should not be allowed to leave the country, we would be blamed. Nobody put him on Exit Control List and he went abroad. All of this affects us,” he said.
SAPM DOESN’T AGREE WITH FAWAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information Firdous Ashiq Awan said on Saturday that Minister for Science and Technology has his own point of view, which she did not agree with. She said if Fawad had any reservations, he should have discussed them with the party leadership