Finance, Petroleum and Foreign Affairs portfolios would be overseen by the Prime Minister himself in the short term, informed sources disclosed to this correspondent. Caretaker Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso remains indecisive about who to allocate key ministries of Finance, Petroleum and Foreign Affairs more than a week after assuming office.
An official requesting anonymity revealed that energy sector requires emergent decisions by taking all the stakeholders namely Petroleum, Water and Power and Finance on board. The lack of decision making can be attributed to an extent to the absence of Ministers of Finance and Petroleum, he added. A senior official and participant of the recent meetings at Finance Ministry said that Ministry of Water and Power has been demanding release of Rs 57 billion immediately or allocation/diversion of gas to the power sector to limit load shedding; failure to do so, the Ministry maintains, would lead to electricity shortfall of 7,000 MW with an associated load-shedding of between 10 and 14 hours. The Finance Ministry has so far refused to release the payment saying it does not have the fiscal space to make such a large unbudgeted injection and urges the Ministry of Water and Power to bring its own house to order by improving governance and reducing theft and line losses.
Sources maintain that by keeping all the three portfolios with himself, the caretaker Prime Minister may end up facilitating decisions that may reflect political as opposed to economic compulsions. Ten days after assuming the charge of caretaker Prime Minister, Khoso on Wednesday allocated portfolio to his caretaker cabinet.