Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan has disobeyed the austerity instructions of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and directed his ministry to change the furniture and other precious items of his office.

The scribe has learnt through a reliable source that Khurram Dastgir already enjoyed most number of foreign tours than anybody else in the federal cabinet.

The Ministry of Commerce under Dastgir’s supervision was already facing criticism from opposition parties and independent experts, as it failed to enhance the country’s exports. Despite lacklustre performance, the minister now wanted to change the furniture of his office on government’s expense.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had earlier given instructions to his cabinet members, asking them to curtail the expenditures of their respective ministries by up to 30 percent. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) manifesto also clearly stated that if any cabinet member would not comply with the instructions, strict and indiscriminate action would be taken against him/her.

It is worth mentioning that Khurram Dastgir had signed a large number of memorandums of understanding with different counties and visited abroad more than 60 times in last three year with a view to “increase” the country’s export. However, the recent plunges in exports depict the failure of the ministry.

Source in the ministry stated that whenever the minister goes abroad, it costs $3,000 per day to the national kitty, adding that the minister “thinks that he is not answerable to anyone”.

According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), exports of Pakistan were recorded at $20.8 billion against the target of $25 billion in 2015-16, plunging down by $4.9 billion.

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government had finished its tenure with exports standing at $25 billion. After coming into power, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif pledged to take the country’s exports to $50 billion by 2018.

It is also worth mentioning that when media asked the minister about his increasing foreign tours and decreasing exports, Dastgir was of the view that a trade minister should tour more often, as he has the responsibility to build business-to-business links besides enhancing export of the country.