Shedding deadwood

The extensive federal cabinet has held what Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has said would be its last meeting in Islamabad and its members have handed in their resignations, which will now, in line with the Constitution, be sent to the president. The decision to disband the cabinet, announced by Mr Gilani a few days ago, also falls in line with a Constitutional requirement under the Eighteenth Amendment. The Amendment stipulates that the cabinet size should be no more than 11 per cent of parliament — which makes for 49 ministers. The outgoing cabinet, with some 60 members — many times larger than the bodies that run the US, the UK, France or Germany — had been the subject of some ridicule, with the government’s own financial team also calling for austerity measures including less spending on ministers.

By dismissing the body, Mr Gilani also takes a stride towards implementing the 10-point agenda of Mian Nawaz Sharif, before the February 24 deadline runs out. The step makes it harder for Sharif to insist the agenda is being ignored, as he has been doing, given the reversal in the petrol price increase, steps to recover loans and now the cabinet cut. The measure also illustrates a commitment towards ensuring better governance. It was also becoming apparent that the government needed to make changes to ward off the heated criticism it has been facing on a number of fronts.

It is as yet unclear how many of the ministers who have resigned will be re-inducted and how many new faces may appear. Inevitably, a process of lobbying for the prestigious slots is already on in Islamabad. For the citizens of the country, what may matter significantly more than the actual size of the cabinet is the issue of what it can achieve. Competence and integrity are both vital factors in this. So is teamwork. It must be hoped that the new, smaller cabinet will do better on this front than the body that has bid farewell — and thus play a part in establishing a more efficient administration capable of taking the country out of the crisis it faces.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 10^th, 2011.