Lack of mechanism: Country yet to make rules for creating a ministry

At present it is the PM who has all the powers to create new ministries at will.

ISLAMABAD: Even 67 years after its inception, Pakistan has yet to frame rules and regulations for creating ministries, which at present emerge and dissolve at the will of the prime minister.

“There is no laid down criterion for the creation of a ministry/division,” says an official document placed before a Senate committee by the Cabinet Division.

It took an opposition lawmaker many months and an active hunt to get this straightforward reply from the bureaucracy – that too, when the matter was referred to the privileges committee.



This week, the Senate Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges was informed that the government had started to develop rules to create a ministry or a division. However, as of now, it is at the discretion of prime minister to form a ministry.

“The prime minister may, whenever necessary, constitute a new ministry consisting of one or more divisions. However, as per proviso to the rule, the constitution of the Division maybe modified from time to time by the prime minister. Thus it is a continuous process,” says the official document – a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune.

Senator Sughra Imam, the mover of the privilege motion, first put up her question on August 1, 2013, when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif re-organised the federal secretariat.

“Every time I was asked to read the rules of business. I knew the answer but I wanted the government to admit it itself,” she said.

She got the straightforward reply only after the chairman Senate on her persistence referred the matter to the privileges committee since the bureaucracy was not ready to publicly admit this open truth.

Before the 18th Amendment in the Constitution adopted in 2010, there was no check on number of cabinet members. The prime minister could have as many members in his cabinet as he wanted.

Still high, but the amendment fixed a maximum limit to the number of cabinet members. It should not exceed 11% of the total membership of parliament.

However, 18th as well as subsequent amendments overlooked the issue of creation of a ministry and division. Any new ministry or division can be formed just with a stroke of pen anytime by the chief executive without going through any rules and regulations.

According to cabinet division, a division/ministry is a self-contained administrative unit responsible for the conduct of business of the federal government in order to pay particular attention to specific subjects.

In their reorganisation, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on June 7, 2013 abolished and merged some ministries and divisions. Currently, there are 29 ministries and 39 divisions in the federal secretariat.

Being a minister is probably one of very few jobs where no criterion is required except, in most cases, parliament’s membership and approbation from the premier.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 5^th, 2014.