Daily Times

Addition of new portfolios to the already bloated Gilani cabinet is the biggest surprise the government has sprung on the inflation-hit electorate. The step is not only ill timed; it is also reflective of the widening mismatch between the needs of the inflation-hit people and the lavish priorities of the ruling political elite. Secondly, the reshuffle mirrors the perceived internal rifts of the ruling party, and reconsolidation of the political power centres. To put it succinctly, the reshuffle does not hold anything beneficial for recession-hit Pakistanis, though it confers personal benefits on political heavyweights and their hangers-on. The most noteworthy portfolio swap has been between Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan, who was shown on TV screens making tearful offers of resigning to Prime Minister Gilani, and the re-induction of Qamar Zaman Kaira, a better choice, back in the slot, as in today’s high-tech world, the information portfolio has assumed much greater importance. Another speculated angle to the swap is the so-called internal contention between the Gilani and Asif Zardari camps. Kaira, it is said, had obtained Zardari’s nod before being sworn in. Six federal ministers and nine ministers of state were sworn in by President Zardari three days apart, with 11 inducted on April 13 and four on April 16. Raja Pervez Ashraf, probably as a reward for his exemplary performance as minister for water and power in the first Gilani government, has been re-inducted as Minister for Information Technology. This re-induction is inexplicable, given the Supreme Court’s strictures against Pervez Ashraf who is facing indictment for his alleged role in shady RPP deals Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan has meanwhile been accommodated in the newly created federal ministry of National Regulation and Services. Similarly, Nazar Mohammad Gondal, another PPP stalwart and former federal minister for food and agriculture, has been assigned the newly created portfolio of Capital Administration and Development, over which he too is reportedly unhappy. Now reports are also surfacing of the PPP’s coalition partner parties expressing their angst at all the new ministers being taken only from the PPP, with not even a nod in their direction.

Cabinet expansion at a time when the country’s economy is caught in a severe recession is an extremely anomalous decision, which the PPP government needs to reconsider. Deep cuts have already been made to scrape together funds from different sources to meet the day-to-day expenditure of running the government. At best the government ought to have effected only a cabinet reshuffle, not a cabinet expansion. The decision needs to be soberly reconsidered. *