Daily Times

The recent cabinet reshuffle didn’t exactly turn out to be the bloodbath it was being made out to be, to say the least. With only half the cycle remaining, the prime minister was expected to make strict decisions based on on-ground performances. Yet the final decisions seem to leave a little something to be desired as far as popular response is concerned. There is, for example, still what can be justifiably termed as dead wood in the cabinet. The aviation minister hasn’t done much to write home about. In fact, during his tenure the national flag carrier touched lows that were shameful even by its standards. Sharyar Afridi, whose loyalty might never be in doubt but whose actions have often embarrassed the government and led some to question his intentions, was also left untouched. Minister for Food Security Syed Fakhar Imam barely budged throughout the food crisis, yet he’s left happy where he was. Similarly, Muhammad Mian Soomro has a blank sheet to show for his performance at the privatisation ministry, and he also survived the shakeup.

There’s also something to be said about transferring someone out of one ministry and into another. Omar Ayub is perhaps the best example. That the axe fell on him was no surprise, considering his handling of the energy portfolio and the clear conflict-on-interest baggage that he carried. But how does handing him economic affairs explain removing him from energy? Wouldn’t it have been better to bring in a fresher, more capable hand to the job? Fawad Chaudhary’s return to the information ministry is also strange, not the least with whispers doing the rounds that he wasn’t very keen on it. If that is true, how is an unwilling person expected to put his heart and soul into the most demanding and thankless of all ministries? The list of questions can go on. Something also needs to be said about the succession of changes at the finance ministry. The decision to replace Hammad Azhar after only 18 days on the job, that too with Shaukat Tareen whose policies PTI disagreed with when he was PPP’s finance minister and whose own bank is in a world of problems, is also quite strange. Energy, Hammad’s new portfolio, is in a crisis of its own so it might have been better to put someone there with more knowledge of the sector than the person who just recently seemed like the best fit for finance.

It seems that what initially came across as the captain reselecting his team turned out to be a mere toggling of the batting order. That means the same team will bat for the remainder of the innings, only at different positions. How this turns out remains to be seen, but this is not exactly what was widely expected from the process. *