Daily Times

The resentment against Asad Umar, who heads the National Command Operation Centre (NCOC), surfaced once again due to his ‘stubborn attitude’ and behaviour of the former finance minister towards his fellow cabinet members, Daily Times has learnt.

According to party insiders, the NCOC chief recently snubbed Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar and misbehaved with him. They said that it was not the only case and the way Asad Umar deals with his fellow cabinet members was not exemplary.

“If this attitude continues for now, it might lead to fissure in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and could be a decisive blow as the ruling party is already under pressure after the formation of pro-Jahangir Tareen group which enjoys support of a good number of electables from South and Central Punjab,” according to one of the party leaders.

A senior PTI leader, who wishes not to be named, says that the prime minister should take notice of the behaviour of Umar immediately if Imran Khan wants to save the party from damage as Jahangir Khan Tareen (JKT) is already on the mission to include disgruntled party leaders in his basket. According to party insiders, JKT was very critical of Umar when he was the finance minister.

“JKT made Khan realise that Umar is impractical, far from ground realities and delayed the IMF program which caused havoc in the Pakistan economy,” they said.

They maintained that JKT had two political targets, Umar and Shah Mahmood Qureshi but they both somehow survived so far. Umar might get badly bruised if he continues to ridicule the fellow colleagues.

In such a critical situation, it would be suicidal if any of the ministers leaves the cabinet because of Umar. “His (Umar’s) behaviour is not up to the mark and majority of the cabinet members are not happy with his conduct with colleagues,” a senior leader from Central Punjab said.

Agreeing with the party leaders, a political analyst based in Lahore says it is clear that when Imran Khan became the prime minister, he was surrounded by too many people who wanted to become a deputy prime minister and Umar was one of those aspirant candidates.