ISLAMABAD, May 25: The government has transferred the secretaries of water and power and food and agriculture, the former for his failure to end load-shedding and the latter for creating a shortage of wheat crisis despite a surplus wheat production.

Sources told Dawn that the transfers were punishment for the top bureaucrats for their “poor performance”.

In a late night move, secretary food Ismael Qureshi was transferred to the Ministry of Water and Power. Sources said Mr Qureshi was one of the proponents of exporting 800,000 tons of wheat – a decision that caused not only the price of the grain to rise but the price of flour also shot up, particularly in Sindh.

Though, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet suspended the export of wheat with immediate effect on Wednesday, shortage of wheat had already dented the government’s reputation at a time when it is facing a judicial crisis and elections are fast approaching.

The sources said that even the ECC’s decision to suspend export has hurt the government’s vote-bank in rural areas of Sindh and Punjab where farmers are not getting reasonable rates for their wheat.

The situation has fuelled a blame game in which farmers are accusing exporters for the price hike and the latter the middleman.

The sources said that some top officials in the food ministry were annoyed with the secretary for mishandling the 1.5 million tons surplus production of wheat this year.

Sources in the Water Ministry told Dawn that President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz were annoyed with water secretary Ishfaq Mohammad for his failure to come up with new energy generation projects at a time when the economy has been growing at a fast pace.

The ongoing unannounced load-shedding across the country – from major cities to the small towns – has come as a major embarrassment for the government as the water ministry has no plans to plug the 1,500 to 2,500 megawatt electricity shortfall in the next three to four years.

Being the author of the somewhat successful power policy of 1994, in which the Benazir government invited Independent Power Producers to Pakistan, Mr Ishfaq was supposed to be catering for the energy requirements of the robust economic growth.

Mr Ishfaq has now been transferred to the Ministry of Youth Affairs.

Secretary Planning Commission Fazl-ur-Rehman has taken over as secretary food, agriculture and livestock. Ghayas Uddin, secretary youth affairs, has been transferred to the Planning Commission.