Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi showed reservations and questioned the federal ministries’ performance rating criteria on Friday, according to a local media house.

According to sources, the foreign minister wrote to Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Shehzad Arbab, expressing significant worry about the Foreign Ministry’s performance being ranked 11th.

The foreign ministry met 22 of the 26 targets and 18 of the 24 targets set out in the performance agreement during the first quarter, according to Qureshi, who added that his ministry also carried out high-level initiatives.

Some of the ministries that could not find their place among the list of top ten ministries were foreign affairs, finance, information technology, housing, information and environment.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs raises concerns about the grading system. It should be made clear whatever system was used to grade ministries” Qureshi was quoted as saying in a letter adding that no issues were raised concerning the ministry’s work.

In the letter written to SAPM Shehzad Arbab who led the review committee tasked with preparing the report, Qureshi stated,”There were no defined guidelines for the 30% performance evaluation.”

He also took the stance that the Foreign Ministry also carried out high-level activities. No concerns were expressed about the work of the Foreign Ministry.

Prime Minister awards certificates to heads of top 10 ministries

Earlier this week, The prime minister awarded certificates to the heads of the top 10 ministries and divisions on a good performance and targets achieved.

In order of their performance, these include the Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division, Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, Ministry of Human Rights, Ministry of Industries and Production, National Security Division, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Interior, and Ministry of National Food Security and Research.

In line with PM Imran Khan’s vision of good governance, the performance agreements were earlier signed between the Prime Minister’s Office and the federal ministries and divisions to achieve their respective targets.

The prime minister said no system could effectively function without the concept of reward and punishment.

“This is a great opportunity to encourage ministries to improve their performance for the benefit of people,” he said.

He suggested that to assess the qualitative performance, weightage should be given to the ministries that are kept ahead of the country’s national interest.

He said increasing exports, finding import substitution and poverty alleviation were significant areas of national interest.

He mentioned that reforms had been made regarding the powers of the National Accountability Bureau that allowed the bureaucrats to take initiatives.

Imran Khan said a quarterly review of the performance of ministries was a step to develop among them a sense of competition to give their best.

He congratulated Communication Minister Murad Saeed for achieving the top position and said that the youngest cabinet member had delivered well regarding his ministry.

PM’s Special Assistant Shahzad Arbab said the ministries had improved the governance through teamwork, inclusiveness, openness and transparency.

He said the government’s agenda was transformed into an actionable form through the performance agreement system.

He said 1,090 targets had been set by the ministries of which 424 would be completed this year, including 207 related to governance and 100 to infrastructure.