KARACHI: Ex-finance minister Asad Umar has openly admitted that the former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led government suffered significant consequences due to the selection of Usman Buzdar as Punjab’s chief minister, The News reported on Friday.
The former finance czar, who was previously a PTI leader, described party founder Imran Khan’s choice to appoint Buzdar to the role as a grave misstep.
These remarks came during an interview last month in which Umar spoke discussed Buzdar’s selection for the role: “One day, Imran Khan came to me and said: I have found a great chief minister for Punjab. I said, who? He said, Usman Buzdar. I said, who is that?”
When the interviewer asked that Buzdar was touted as having originated from an extremely underdeveloped part of southern Punjab, Umar said yes, and that Buzdar apparently didn’t even have electricity where he came from and in his home.
He then added laughingly: “[Buzdar] was such an incompetent tehsil nazim that he couldn’t even ensure electricity!”
The former PTI leader then quipped, “Look, poor Usman Buzdar must be thinking what sort of man I am. Honestly, it’s not like it’s personal; he doesn’t owe me anything — but [appointing Buzdar chief minister] was a terrible idea, and we suffered because of that.”
It may be noted that Buzdar had always been a controversial figure for the criticism he attracted.
Last year, Imran Khan loyalist Zulfi Bukhari also revealed that the jailed former prime minister had realised that Buzdar’s appointment was a “mistake” but but had limited options to replace him.
He claimed that when Imran Khan reflected on his time in power he realised that Usman Buzdar was not the right choice as Punjab chief minister but things got complicated politically as there were many groups of the party in Punjab who wanted to replace Buzdar.
