Upsized Cabinet

Pakistan is under serious threats from too many sides including War on Terrorism, Financial Crisis, Security Concerns at FATA......and much more to count but present Colation government of Pakistan Peoples Party are playing with the nation future by upsizing the cabinet without any solid reasons.......

The federal cabinet has now swollen to 55 members, following the induction of 40 new members. These include 22 federal ministers and 18 members of state. The demand for cabinet posts can be imagined by the fact that the MQM and the JUI-F stayed out of even this mammoth new body, apparently disgruntled by the failure to apportion them their portfolios of choice. Bitter wrangling for these spots is said to have repeatedly delayed the announcement of the new cabinet. Several PPP veterans have been included, alongside a large number of relatively younger party members. The key appointment in this regard is that of Makhdoom Amin Fahim as senior minister, with charge of commerce. With his acceptance of this post – the rift within the party seems to have been quite amicably patched over, even if the cabinet expansion has created potential new fault-lines with allies. The MQM and JUI-F leadership were conspicuous in their absence from the oath-taking of the new ministers and it is as yet unclear how this will impact on coalition politics in the future. Unexpectedly, the PML-Q 'forward bloc' also failed to gain a place, though the ANP, the PML-F, the BNP (Awami) and members from FATA have all been accommodated.

As the saying goes, bigger is not always better. We have yet to see how the new cabinet performs and whether it can prove itself as the streamlined central decision-making body that a cabinet is intended to be. While there are already question marks about talent within the body, at least one of the appointments is downright disquieting. Senator Israrullah Zehri, of the BNP (Awami), has been granted a slot as federal minister. He is the same man who vociferously defended as 'tradition' the live burial of women in his home province of Balochistan, when the issue was raised a few weeks ago in the Upper House. By rewarding him with a place in the cabinet, the PPP leadership has proven that its rhetoric about defending the rights of women is nothing more than a cosmetic stance. The appointment of Mr Zehri in fact suggests his views are condoned by the government leaders and that is an undiluted shame. The best thing of course would have been not to appoint such an individual to cabinet post, but now that the deed is done, one can only hope the move will meet with the opposition it deserves from both within and outside the party.

The upsizing of the cabinet, which had been expected for months, takes away from the prime minister and his team the excuse that they have been working with a skeleton set of ministers. The new inductees mean portfolios can be distributed evenly across the board. We must hope that this division in labour and the induction of a massive new force to perform the duties of government will lead to an improvement in performance. So far, there have been few real achievements. It is true the establishment of committees to look into issues such as reconciliation in Balochistan and a change in laws governing FATA are positive steps. So too is the stepped up assault on militancy with a full-fledged military operation underway in the tribal areas. But as far as issues closest to the heart of people go, there has been no sign of a new order. These issues include inflation, unemployment and the energy crisis. The financial crisis we face aggravates each of these issues. As we confront this turmoil, a sense of leadership and of direction is difficult to find. The primary task of the new cabinet must be to put its head together and plan for the future of the country and its hapless people, so that they can regain the trust and faith in government that is rather sadly lacking at the moment.