The top decision-making body of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) decided on Friday to dissolve the cabinet, a concession to the opposition unlikely to help win its support for wholesale economic reform as demanded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has demanded a smaller cabinet as part of a 10-point economic agenda accepted by the PPP in early January.
But the PML-N continues to oppose plans to impose reformed general sales tax (RGST) – a key condition of the IMF for the $11.3 billion bailout package.
“President Asif Ali Zardari has given the authority to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to dissolve the cabinet whenever he wants,” PPP Secretary-General Jahangir Badar told a news conference after the meeting of the PPP’s Central Executive Committee (CEC).
“All the ministers have submitted their resignations to the president,” he added but he did not say when Gilani would act. PPP officials say the process might take a maximum of one week.
Badar said the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) will be offered portfolios in the next cabinet to be announced while keeping in view the next general elections. He added that the PPP would continue its ‘reconciliatory policies’ to strengthen democracy.
Premier Gilani is likely to reduce his cabinet, one of the largest in the world, to between 20 and 30, a senior PPP official said. Most of the shed portfolios will devolve to the provinces under the 18th constitutional amendment.
Presidential spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said in a statement that President Zardari told the CEC that he wanted to have a “mean, lean and aboveboard cabinet”.
“The premier will reappoint a smaller cabinet with fewer ministers enjoying a reputation of integrity, competence and efficiency in consultation with the coalition partners,” Babar added.
These words clearly speak of suspicions the president might have about the integrity of the incumbent ministers, but Badar insisted the statement should not be interpreted this way.
The statement added that all ministers, advisers and special assistants would cease to hold offices on a date to be decided by the prime minister after consultation with the coalition partners.
Later in the evening, Gilani apparently started the process by calling top leaders of political parties. He spoke to Nawaz Sharif, Pir Pagara, Altaf Hussain, Asfandyar Wali, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Munir Khan Orakzai, leader of the parliamentarians from tribal regions.
The move to dissolve the cabinet came almost four months after media said last year that military wanted the corrupt officials out of the administration.
But Babar said the move was to implement a key decision in the 18th amendment that envisaged reducing the number of ministers to 11 per cent of the total size of parliament.
Badar also contradicted speculations about President Zardari’s second marriage, saying that he has “already wedded the mission” of the slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto.
The government thinks that by ‘rightsizing’ the federal cabinet it may get the support of opposition parties and some of its coalition partners for the RGST which the IMF wants to be imposed immediately.
The IMF says widening the tax base and implementing the RGST is key for securing the next tranche of an $11 billion emergency loan, which has propped up the economy since 2008.
“The government thinks that if they demonstrate that they are reducing expenditure (by reducing the cabinet) they can mobilise support for the (RGST),” said political analyst Hasan Askari.
With additional input from wires
Published in The Express Tribune, February 5th, 2011.
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