Qureshi-Tareen spat: PM asks ministers not to pass remarks against each other

Prime Minister Imran Khan has barred his cabinet ministers and party leaders from making public comments against each other following the resurfacing of the spat between Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Jahangir Tareen. The directives, according to sources, were given during the cabinet meeting he chaired on Tuesday.
The prime minister defended the invitation extended to Tareen to attend cabinet meetings, saying he respects the court verdicts, but Tareen was tasked by him, the prime minister, to give a briefing on agriculture policy as an expert. "Both Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Jahangir Tareen are senior party leaders and their opinions are given due importance. But who should come to the [cabinet] meeting and who should not, this is my prerogative as the prime minister", Khan was quoted as saying.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi had expressed serious reservations at Jahangir Tareen's presence in official meetings the day before in a press conference arguing that "Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz raises questions whether this is contempt of court. When 62 (1)(f) is imposed on Nawaz Sharif we say he cannot hold any government or party position. If 62 (1)(f) is imposed on us, should it have a separate yardstick? The Tehreek-e-Insaf worker is unable to accept this and you [Tareen] are giving an opportunity to opponents of Tehreek-e-Insaf to exploit this."
These comments sparked a spate of tweets by federal ministers and party leaders in support of one or the other. Barrister Ali Zafar, former President of Supreme Court Bar Association who also served as the law minister in the last caretaker set-up, told Business Recorder that under the Official Secrets Act, no unauthorized person, irrespective of his/her qualification or disqualification by a court of law, can attend official meetings.
Zafar added that it is the prerogative of the prime minister to invite any one to give a presentation to the cabinet on a particular subject but said he is not legally allowed to sit in the cabinet meeting once his presentation is over.
Tareen has contributed enormously to the party, particularly after the July 25 general elections by luring a large number of independents to join the PTI as well as forming a coalition with smaller regional parties thereby cobbling a coalition in the Centre and the Punjab, though with a thin majority at both the federal and provincial level.
His critics maintain that his success would not have been possible without institutional support, however the then elect-Prime Minister Imran Khan tasked him to get the numbers and he did. Tareen's personal career in industry and agriculture has been highly successful-expertise that was first tapped by Musharraf who gave the portfolio of Industry to Tareen from August 2004-November 2007. Tareen apologized to the nation for supporting a dictator when he joined the PTI.
Qureshi, a seasoned politician, has, so far, emerged as the most successful minister of Khan's administration and is perhaps the only proactive cabinet member whose role as foreign minister was acknowledged by the military establishment with the senior military leadership advising ISPR to follow the Foreign Office lead in the wake of tensions with India.
He is credited with firming up assistance of over $10 billion from friendly countries (loans and deferred oil payment facility) though his detractors claim that his visits to capitals of friendly countries were always in the wake of the visits of Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa. He is also cautiously pursuing the country's foreign policy towards greater rapprochement with the US and Afghanistan.
Qureshi, is one of the few senior party leaders, who has left lines of communications open with leaders of the opposition-PML-N and PPP. He has repeatedly been tasked by the prime minister to engage with opposition members on national matters including on a briefing on National Action Plan.
Qureshi was not allowed to canvass in support of the PTI candidate Wasif Mazhar in PP-212 recent by-elections from Multan yet analysts are agreed that his strong support base played a key role in the victory of the PTI candidate.
This is not the first time the two senior PTI leaders aired their differences in the public. In June last year, the two leaders had locked horns over the distribution of tickets to candidates for July 25 general elections.
This was followed by another episode of reported verbal arguments between the two in July 2018 when Tareen met an independent candidate Salman Naeem who defeated Qureshi in the 2018 polls.