The events that led to Asad Umar’s unceremonious exit.

[kamranofficial]

It was no secret that Pakistan’s finance minister, Asad Umar, was not preforming up to the mark. The opposition was salivating at the prospects of his failure. Even members of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were grumling.

Published by:kamranofficial

Umar was seen as being responsible for failing to control inflation, for taking too long to decide whether Pakistan needed another bailout package, and for not being able to secure adequate funds from friendly countries.



Within the party, the loudest critic was Murad Saeed, the minister for communications. When the tax amnesty scheme was presented to the cabinet, he and other like-minded opposed it vehemently.



Outside the power corridors, and into the local markets, there was confusion. Eight months in and the newly-minted finance minister seemed to have been working without a plan.



Now, the prime minister is sensitive to criticism. Which is why earlier this month, he decided that a change needed to be made. If he was to stabilise his government, and not bud heads with other institutions, finance and security had to be in safer hands. So out goes the finance minister and in comes a more experienced Abdul Hafeez Sheikh. Separately, the prime minister decided to part with the interior ministry and hand it over to Brigadier (retd) Ijaz Shah.



The news was then slowly leaked to the media to prepare the market. Talk of Umar’s replacement was already circulating for a few months now, yet the manner of his exit on Thursday came as a rude shock for everyone.



Those privy to the development say that a week ago the prime minister decided to place a technocrat, instead of a politician, in the ministry for finance. Asad Umar wasn’t completely in the dark either. The word had gotten around to him.



Finally, on Wednesday midnight, the prime minister broke the news to Umar via WhatsApp. The exchange between the two was long and tense. Umar, an old and close confidante of the prime minister, was slighted.

Prime Minister Imran Khan offered him the ministry for petroleum instead. He refused. The next offer was to continue to head a selection of cabinet committees, including the Economic Coordination Committee, Cabinet Committee of Privatization and the Executive Committee of National Economic Council, which are otherwise the domain of the prime minister, but Umar was running them on his behalf. Again, the finance minister snubbed the proposal. His reasoning was that the new finance minister would want to head these committees himself and that would create problems between the two.



A few hours after the conversation, Umar tweeted the news and then later briefed the press — alone and abandoned.



While, the prime minister has the prerogative to reassemble and reshuffle his cabinet at any junction of his tenure, one wonders why the finance minister was sent packing a few days before Pakistan was to secure a monetary bailout package from the IMF or close to the PTI-government’s first annual budget.



One wonders why the prime minister had to give his most-trusted lieutenant an unceremonious exit.

 

[war&peace]

A few hours after the conversation, Umar tweeted the news and then later briefed the press — alone and abandoned.

He is neither alone nor abandoned. Ministries can get shuffled and reshuffled but he is still an important member of PTI. It is just that he could not perform satisfactorily on finance. Rest soon the dust will settle.

 

[IbnAbdullah]

Salaam

I'm not sure about the reasons for which Asad Umar was removed. Whether they were mostly to do with his performance or if there was a political angle to it as well, if yes then to what degree.

I do know that even if they had to remove him from that particular post, Imran Khan and the lot should ensure that they keep him from slowly slipping away. He is an intelligent and a dedicated person, much more so than many of the other members. He can be helpful in many other fields. I hope IK understands that.

I hope he also understands that the way in which Asad Umar was removed would've made him feel slighted. Hopefully Imran Khan will find a way to remedy the situation and get him back to working on something appropriate for his talent and capacity.


...

 

[SIPRA]

He is neither alone nor abandoned. Ministries can get shuffled and reshuffled but he is still an important member of PTI. It is just that he could not perform satisfactorily on finance. Rest soon the dust will settle.

By "alone and abandoned", the writer is referring to his press briefing, where there were vacant chairs on either side of his chair.

 

[Hakikat ve Hikmet]

He looked too soft for the management of finances....

 

[war&peace]

He looked too soft for the management of finances....

He was too indecisive and that created uncertainty and harmed the economy.

 

[Talha Asif]

Too rude way to expell anybody from team if you know about his honesty. Seriously IK need to consider there attitude and handling of these matters with soft handle so nobody hurt

 

[Syed1.]

He tried to bring the sugar mafia under control and reduce sugar production while increasing cotton or wheat, which JKT didn't like obviously and since JKT is the atm of IK, IK had to fire him.

 

[Proudpakistaniguy]

You are saying to opposition that economic mess is because of them and cannot be fix in few months and it need some time for economic policies to be visible yet you sack your finance minister because of failure which mean you are approving the claim of opposition that you have been failed so had to do some rethinking

Too rude way to expell anybody from team if you know about his honesty. Seriously IK need to consider there attitude and handling of these matters with soft handle so nobody hurt

If there is one thing for which asad could be blame then its just timing of his decisions otherwise he or even others have no alladin lamp to fix economic crisis in 8 months..PTI naya Pakistan was nothing but false hope and dream to desperate awaam wanted change desperately . Good rhetoric and slogan before election may bring you in power but actual work start when you are in power and PTI has no competent team to deliver medina like riaysat

 

[airmarshal]

So the whole idea of being in government is to be a minister? If minister is dismissed, he should come out in press conference surrounded by toadies and lash out at the PM.

This seems to be the crux of the article shared above.

If PM thought Asad was not performing, give him the credit first he accepted he is not performing and decided to remove him undeterred of media and rubbish opposition thought of it. It takes courage to do that.

Credit to Asad Umar too he did not play out the way the author of the article suggests. If he was not performing, Imran would have brought that across him already. Asad was Imran's first choice. Asad too knows he is not in PTI to be a minister. He joined PTI when it was not in government. He is an ideological man and will not be swayed by being dismissed as a minister.

By the way, this is how it happens in the West too. You dont perform, you have to go. This is why West so so far ahead of us. Merit is the only criteria, not personal like or dislike.

 

[Proudpakistaniguy]

So the whole idea of being in government is to be a minister? If minister is dismissed, he should come out in press conference surrounded by toadies and lash out at the PM.

This seems to be the crux of the article shared above.

If PM thought Asad was not performing, give him the credit first he accepted he is not performing and decided to remove him undeterred of media and rubbish opposition thought of it. It takes courage to do that.

Credit to Asad Umar too he did not play out the way the author of the article suggests. If he was not performing, Imran would have brought that across him already. Asad was Imran's first choice. Asad too knows he is not in PTI to be a minister. He joined PTI when it was not in government. He is an ideological man and will not be swayed by being dismissed as a minister.

By the way, this is how it happens in the West too. You dont perform, you have to go. This is why West so so far ahead of us. Merit is the only criteria, not personal like or dislike.

If he did not perform as per Imran Khan then why he offered him energy ministry .. if he could not perform in field of his expertise then how you expect him to perform in energy sector..kudos to Asad that he did not took other ministry ..they just made him scapegoat. We will see what miracles his replacement will do to overcome economic crisis

 

[jupiter2007]

Too rude way to expell anybody from team if you know about his honesty. Seriously IK need to consider there attitude and handling of these matters with soft handle so nobody hurt

IK need to understand that Politics is not cricket, and cricket is not politics.
Asad Umar has done the best possible job in the current circumstances/financial situation. No one should expect miracles from him. There is no performance issue and there is no quick fixes. Those who are thinking economy will turn around in 2 years are living in fools paradise.
Stabilization and recovery of the economy will depend on drastic changes in policies.
IK was forced to removed Asad Umar due to pressure from someone, there are forces within PTI who didn’t want Asad Umar to succeed. It was wrong the way Asad was forces to take another ministry. In my opinion he made the right decision and by not taking anything else. He needs to relax and spend time with his family.

 

[BATMAN]

I think only reason for sacking of AU was that PTI won the elections based on their criticism of financial performance and IMF loans of previous regime.

Now when PTI has to tell the public that IMF bailout is the only way out, it obviously draws wide spread criticism and panic, hence PTI decided to sacrifice AU to come out of storm of criticism.

He certainly had wrong ideas about the finances of state before elections, otherwise he would have refused to head finance ministry from beginning.

With his resignation, AU sends out one message. Let's see how Dr. Hafiz can fix it.

So let's see what comes out of it.

 

[xyxmt]

Read all the childish comments, what I missed reading was the fact that a marketing executive just cannot run let alone fix a country's economy

 

[war&peace]

He tried to bring the sugar mafia under control and reduce sugar production while increasing cotton or wheat, which JKT didn't like obviously and since JKT is the atm of IK, IK had to fire him.

No bro!! that's not true.. He had not done his homework. He made policies and changed so many times that it created total mess. As an overseas Pakistani, I remember how many times he applied the filers condition and then revoked for buying property and car... I'm still not sure what is the policy on ground right now.

He did the same in most of his decisions: introduce this tax then withdraw it, then reimpose the double the amount and then take it away. It caused a totally disappointment among the business community and he did not take anyone into confidence..his relations with business community were not good at all. If we have to bring more businesses in the tax net, we have to do it in a friendly way and not scare them away, he actually scared them away. Most of the ministers who are delivering good results were not happy with him either.

Still IK offered him another portfolio, if he claims that he did not join PTI on any condition to be a minister then why did he reject the offer petroleum ministry and prove his mettle there?

IK is the captain and if he feels someone is not performing, he can relief him/her of their responsibilities.