Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Another federal minister has threatened the government with resignation as bureaucracy of his ministry and the managing director of the Utility Stores Corporation are giving him a tough time, sources close to the federal minister told Daily Times on Tuesday.

“Our Federal Minister for Industry and Production Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi wrote a letter to Managing Director of the Utility Stores Corporation Gulzar Shah and directed him to brief him about implementation of the Ramazan relief package and computerisation of the record of all utility stores in the country, but Shah refused to brief him and told him in writing that he was answerable to Jamal Siddiqui, chairman of the board of directors of the Utility Stores Corporation, not the minister. Therefore, he will not give him a briefing,” says an official.

Siddiqui is from Lahore and has strong relations with the rulers; therefore, he directly issues orders to the Utility Stores Corporation managing director, the sources said.

Sources said that Jatoi wanted to computerise all the record of the Utility Stores Corporation throughout the country through a transparent bidding process, but the chairman of the board of directors and the managing director of the Utility Stores Corporation were not cooperating with him in this regard. They were already in the process of short-listing two companies without calling open tenders.

There are 28 subordinate departments and corporations under the Ministry of Industry and Production, including the Utility Stores Corporation, and none of them disobeys the orders of the minister except the corporation, the sources said. An additional secretary of the ministry has join hands with the Shah and Siddiqui and added to the minister’s woes, the sources said.

Jatoi is set to take up the issue with Secretary to Prime Minister Fawad Hassan Fawad. He may resign if his concerns are not addressed, the sources said.