No room for more ministers

That Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is continuing to expand his cabinet and upgrade the posts of ministers in the dying days of PML-N rule is indeed unfortunate. After Miftah Ismail, the adviser to the prime minister on finance, revenue and economic affairs, was elevated to the rank of finance minister on April 27, there was little room to accommodate more federal ministers in the already swollen cabinet. Yet soon after three ministers of state, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Tariq Fazal Chaudhry and Anusha Rehman, were taken on as federal ministers without proper justification. Then on May 3^rd, Barrister Usman Ibrahim became the latest minister of state to get elevated as the federal minister for human rights. Another parliamentarian, Laila Khan, was appointed as a minister of state.

It is obvious that these ministerial elevations at the federal level were highly unnecessary. The ruling party seems to have been guided more by its members’ desire for immediate gratification rather than any compelling constitutional need. With the exception of Miftah Ismail’s appointment which was in fulfillment of a constitutional condition, all other appointments were handed down as political rewards.

Opposition politicians have accurately but unkindly called the ministerial upgrades awards for showing loyalty to the ousted prime minister, Nawaz Sharif. If that is indeed the case it is hard to justify the move to the country’s taxpayers. Why should the public otherwise pay for party loyalty?

Such an approach has already hurt the interests of the country and strengthened the hand of the unprincipled. In the not-too-distant past national programmes and development projects were allocated on the basis of party loyalty. Only regions that were perceived to be loyal to the party in government were deemed worthy of financial rewards and the like. Good citizenship, after all, does not revolve around party loyalty. Citizens are expected to think for themselves; they should try to understand public issues and work for the greater good all of the time. As far as possible, parliamentarians representing the government and the opposition should act together against any form of malpractice or corruption.

In this era of austerity and slimmed down cabinets, there is just no space for a few extra ministers.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 5^th, 2018.

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