Cabinet reshuffle
by
Javed Hafiz |
It is unlikely to improve government performance
I cannot call it a new cabinet , but, yes we have a down-sized cabinet of ministers, which is a good thing. The 18th amendment, last year, had obliged the government to restrict the cabinet size to 11 per cent of the National Assembly strength. That works out to 49 ministers. I cannot call it a new cabinet as there are hardly three or four new faces. The rest are all chips off the old block.
Right sizing of the cabinet was also one of the 10 points of Nawaz Sharif in order to cut expenditure. The cabinet reshuffle has not had the desired effect if the idea was to show that the government is alive to the public criticism regarding corruption. People in general see it as a gimmick which is not likely to improve performance.
As of now, there are 22 ministers but more would be added later. Many old faces like Law Minister Babar Awan, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar, Finance Minister Hafeez Sheikh and Commerce Minister Amin Faheem are back to their old portfolios. Syed Khursheed Shah and Syed Naveed Qamar are also back but with different portfolios.
The daily News ran a headline “Old wine in old bottle”. In the classical sense, cabinet reshuffles reflect new policies and priorities of a government. Ministers are accordingly changed to achieve new priorities and objectives. In this case, one leading newspaper has written an editorial that the sole criterion of the reshuffle was loyalty to the president. This amply proves that the prime minister, who ostensibly is the chief executive after the 18th amendment, still works under the shadow of the president, thanks to certain clauses in the amendment which have strengthened party stranglehold over the MPs.
A glaring omission in the new cabinet is Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the erstwhile voluble foreign minister. He has ostensibly become a casualty of the Raymond Davis case. This peculiar case is getting more and more complicated every day. The Punjab Police is of the opinion that self defence plea of Davis is contradicted by the eyewitness accounts. In this particular case, all of Pakistani nightmares about the American role have coalesced.
Anti-Americanism has assumed new heights in Pakistan. Emotionalism has taken the front seat and the real issues are being ignored. The fact is that Raymond Davis belongs to a US private security company hired for particular jobs in places like Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. His diplomatic cover has been torn to shreds. But that still does not mean that he will go to the gallows. After all, the government of Pakistan allowed the likes of him to enter Pakistan under diplomatic cover.
The government must revisit this policy and take the parliament into confidence as to how many such people were allowed into Pakistan and what is their exact role. While finding a compromise solution for Raymond Davis, which is not easy now, his comrades in arms must also be shown the door. But in the heat of emotions, that vital aspect
is forgotten.
Coming back to Shah Mahmood Qureshi, he has spilled the beans by saying that Raymond Davis, in the Foreign Office opinion, did not enjoy blanket immunity and that he was told not to speak by the powers that be. This has been a huge embarrassment for the government. Prime Minister Gilani rightly said that the government was caught between the devil and the deep sea. But these are self-created problems, to tell the truth.
Raymond Davis and colleagues, I do not know what their exact number is, were issued visas, under direct orders from the Prime Minister’s Secretariat to Pakistan mission in Washington DC, bypassing the laid-down procedures. Their presence in Pakistan was a clear expression of non-confidence in the Pakistani security agencies. Why did the PM’s Secretariat make an exception for such sensitive visas? The government must work as a single well-coordinated unit, taking all its departments on board while taking such sensitive decisions.
So Qureshi is trying to emerge as some kind of a tragic political hero. The religious right wing parties are also trying to extract maximum political mileage , completely ignoring the importance of bilateral relationship. Zardari and company are willing to please their foreign masters but cannot do that for the huge political price to be paid. A compromise solution is the best option and Choudhary Shujaat has hinted at Qisas or the blood money as a way out.
Sorry for the digression, other significant omissions are Power Minister Raja Perwaiz Ashraf who was seen as corrupt and inefficient. His fascination with rental power plants earned him the nickname of “Raja Rental”. Information Minister Kaira could not retain his post as he was perceived to be soft on private TV channels which, in the government opinion, have become too independent. But the days of controlling the media in Pakistan are history now and his successor will not be able to do that either. A good new entrant is Mian Raza Rabbani, clean and efficient , but really does not gel well with this corruption-tainted government!
(Javed Hafiz is Pakistan’s former ambassador to the Sultanate).
Oman Tribune |
Other comment for Javed Hafiz
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| NEWS UPDATES |
|
|
|
|
|
|
