The Federal Cabinet

A 32-member Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, was sworn in by President General Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad on Wednesday, laying to rest all the speculations that ministers who did not perform well in Zafarullah Khan Jamali's government would be getting the axe. Changing the Prime Minister but keeping all other ministers on board suggests that until the next general election there will be very little room for flexibility available to the President in a Parliament where the opposition is quite strong and above all a carefully cobbled coalition government needs to be held together.
Elevating two ministers of State to full Cabinet rank and inducting 11 new Ministers means a major cabinet expansion, which would necessitate bifurcation of some existing ministries.
The federal ministries were raised from 26 to the present 32 by General Musharraf to accommodate the coalition government and obtain a majority for Zafarullah Jamali's government, even though the National Reconstruction Bureau had recommended a reduction in the strength of ministries to 16 or even less. Under PM Aziz the size of the Cabinet is expected to bloat to 36 and Aziz has himself indicated that around 20 Ministers of State are to be sworn in by the end of the week. A ministry has to be headed by a minister. It can have a Minister of State and have more than one division, each headed by a Secretary.
Having more ministers of State is desirable in a parliamentary system as the office provides a grooming ground for young parliamentarians to learn about policy formulation and obtain operational experience which stands them in good stead if they are earmarked by the parties as future ministers.
However, increasing the number of ministries amounts to substantial expansion of the federal government and would obviously result in delaying the return of powers to the provinces in accordance with the 1973 Constitution.
The con-federal list was agreed upon with the provinces for a transitional period of 10 years. Thirty-one years have since passed.
The federal set-up agreed in the Constitution, therefore, needs to be accomplished not only in letter but also in spirit as agreed between the four federating units.
The expanded cabinet is said to be a joint choice of the President, the Prime Minister and the PML chief, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain. It can only function as a cohesive unit if the Ministers know who their boss is.
In the days of Prime Minister Jamali it was common knowledge that the Cabinet was fractious. Some minister had no qualms about complaining to the President when Jamali would not agree on a policy, appointment or promotion sought by them.
Similarly, others could be seen courting the PML chief to influence Jamali to take or reverse a decision in their favour.
This was precisely why people felt that there was no forward movement on major issues in Islamabad, and they yearned for quality in decision making as exhibited by the Musharraf cabinet of technocrats prior to the last general election. It was also commonly believed that only the politicians could create a national consensus on the National Finance Commission Award and the apportionment of water resources. It did not happen.
In fact, tardy decision making led to inordinate delay in the import of wheat, and an abnormal rise in the price of wheat flour (Atta).
President Musharraf says that by institutionalising the interaction between Defence Chiefs and the civilian bosses through the National Security Council he has brought into open the back-door contacts between the Khaki and the civilians.
He feels strongly that bringing the "Army in" will keep the "Army out" in future. With this institutionalising of co-ordination between the three strands of power will the new set-up work effectively? It remains a moot question.
There are important issues such as NFC; water accord; relationship with the opposition all of which may have a bearing on the ongoing operation in Wana and the unrest in Balochistan.
Unless the cabinet members know for sure who the real team captain is and what precisely they are expected to do within the framework of national policy objectives they would continue to waste their energies groping around the multiple centres of power, for inspiration, guidance or personal support, and we would be back to square one.