Friends, foes slam cabinet expansion

Question necessity to induct ministers at fag-end of govt tenure

ISLAMABAD: Leaders of mainstream opposition parties, including some in the ruling coalition criticised the government’s decision to expand the federal cabinet just a month before the expiry of this government’s tenure.

The move also created resentment among the ranks of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) who believe electable lawmakers were overlooked while inducting new ministers.

Opposition parties contended that this move amounted to obliging favourites in utter disregard of merit.

Even PML-N legislators are reportedly not happy over the fact that all but one newly-appointed ministers are electable and someone outside parliament is given an important portfolio.

Last week, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi appointed Miftah Ismail, Marvi Memon, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Anusha Rehman and Tariq Fazal Chaudhary as federal ministers and Leila Khan as state minister.

Fazal, elected to the National Assembly in 2013, is the only electable in the lot.

Marvi Memon, Anusha Rehman, Leila Khan and Marriyum Aurangzeb have been elected to the National Assembly on reserved seats.

Apart from Miftah Ismail, who is not even a member of parliament, none of the other new ministers is assigned a ministerial portfolio.

Former secretary of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) told The Express Tribune that elevation of Miftah Ismail implied that the PM was unable to find any suitable candidate from among all parliamentarians to head the Finance Ministry.

“PM Abbasi has insulted the entire Parliament, especially more than 200 PML-N lawmakers including MNAs and senators, by elevating a ‘stranger to parliament’ as the finance minister,” he said.

“What’s the point in appointing a ‘paratrooper’ as finance minister when you already have an elected finance minister of state?”

Dilshad said Article 91 was applicable only in extreme circumstances – to appoint a person as a minister who was not a member of Parliament – only in the absence of a substitute.

“With this kind of non-seriousness, I really doubt if the government would really be in a position to have the federal budget passed from NA on May 14.”

Article 91(9) reads “A Minister who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of the National Assembly shall, at the expiration of that period, cease to be a minister and shall not before the dissolution of that Assembly be again appointed a minister unless he is elected a member of that Assembly: Provided that nothing contained in this clause shall apply to a Minister who is member of the Senate.”



Requesting anonymity, a PML-N legislator said that the party’s lawmakers from central Punjab supported the candidature of Rana Afzal Khan, the incumbent State Minister for Finance, as federal finance minister when he was inducted in the federal cabinet in December last year.

“In the wake of so many defections in the party, there was hardly any need to bypass Rana Afzal and take a controversial decision at this point.”

Senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Azam Swati said that the move was ‘absolutely unnecessary.’

“Obliging favourites before the end of the government’s term speaks volumes about the government’s priorities,” he said.

Swati said that the PM and his colleagues had ‘misused’ Article 91 for appointing someone from outside parliament.

PML-N’s ally Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl’s (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman wondered why six ministers were inducted so close to the expiry of the government’s tenure.

Terming the move unfair and uncalled for, he said: “After 59 months, the government felt the need to expand cabinet in the last month of the government’s tenure … This is so strange.”

Pointing out that Senator Haroon Akhtar is the PM’s Special Assistant on Revenue and Rana Afzal Khan is the State Minister for Finance, he said that if Miftah Ismail was to be elevated as federal finance minister, “Why are they in the Parliament? This culture of political bribery should end.”

Chief of Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Sirajul Haq said: “Those who insist upon the sanctity of vote must stop insulting parliament. From among 342 members of the National Assembly and 104-member Senate, not one parliamentarian was found fit to be a finance minister.”