Core committee meeting: PPP leadership deliberates cabinet expansion
Considers strategy for AJK elections, coalition realignments.
ISLAMABAD:
The core committee of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) met on Monday to finalise plans to expand the cabinet and decide on an electoral strategy for the upcoming elections to the Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) legislative assembly.
The deliberations were led by President Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of the PPP. The government is planning to increase the size of the federal cabinet in two phases.
In the first phase, cabinet slots are likely to be announced for PPP members next week. The details of the second phase will be decided in another meeting on Thursday. On the agenda is whether or not to include members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) or the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) in the cabinet.
The MQM is already a coalition partner but resigned their ministries and refused to rejoin them after a brief split from the ruling alliance. The PPP seems to be treating the PML-Q’s support like a contingency plan in case the MQM decides to leave the coalition again.
Sources say that an agreement has mostly been worked out between the PPP and the PML-Q regarding an alliance in both the federal and Punjab governments, including the names of at least some of the PML-Q members likely to get cabinet slots in Islamabad. Some members of the PML-Q, however, are hesitant to align themselves with the PPP, causing rifts in an already severely divided party.
The deliberations over electoral strategy come as the government has finished three years in office and warded off several challenges and predictions of its demise. The president seemed confident that his administration would be able to complete its term.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 19th, 2011.
The core committee of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) met on Monday to finalise plans to expand the cabinet and decide on an electoral strategy for the upcoming elections to the Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) legislative assembly.
The deliberations were led by President Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of the PPP. The government is planning to increase the size of the federal cabinet in two phases.
In the first phase, cabinet slots are likely to be announced for PPP members next week. The details of the second phase will be decided in another meeting on Thursday. On the agenda is whether or not to include members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) or the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) in the cabinet.
The MQM is already a coalition partner but resigned their ministries and refused to rejoin them after a brief split from the ruling alliance. The PPP seems to be treating the PML-Q’s support like a contingency plan in case the MQM decides to leave the coalition again.
Sources say that an agreement has mostly been worked out between the PPP and the PML-Q regarding an alliance in both the federal and Punjab governments, including the names of at least some of the PML-Q members likely to get cabinet slots in Islamabad. Some members of the PML-Q, however, are hesitant to align themselves with the PPP, causing rifts in an already severely divided party.
The deliberations over electoral strategy come as the government has finished three years in office and warded off several challenges and predictions of its demise. The president seemed confident that his administration would be able to complete its term.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 19th, 2011.