Legitimacy of 60-member cabinet questioned

ISLAMABAD: Legality of the expanded 60-member cabinet is again being questioned in the light of existing constitutional provisions.

Moreover, the newly-notified cabinet still lists Khawaja Asif as foreign minister, despite his disqualification by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) last week.

Marvi Memon, officially not part of the cabinet, was elevated to the status of federal minister a few days ago.

Notified earlier on Thursday, the cabinet has 33 federal ministers, 15 state ministers, eight advisers and four special assistants to the PM.

On April 27, PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi appointed Miftah Ismail, Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Anusha Rehman and Marvi Memon as federal ministers and Leila Khan as a state minister.

There is also the question whether the PM is constitutionally allowed to have such a large cabinet.

In the light of Article 92, the strength of the cabinet should not exceed 11 per cent of the total membership of the Parliament.



Currently, Parliament has 446 seats in both houses – 104 senators and 342 MNAs – and 11 per cent of this come to 49 members.

In August last year, when PM Abbasi assumed charge, his cabinet had 56-members.

After a story was published in The Express Tribune later that month, suggesting PM Abbasi’s oversized cabinet was in violation of constitutional provisions, the PM’s Office quietly removed the names of certain cabinet members from the official cabinet list and eventually removed the list from its official website.

Sources said that certain cabinet members were not officially listed as such. They said this was done to create the illusion that the cabinet is smaller than it actually is.

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Sartaj Aziz was also elevated to the status of a federal minister, but his name does not appear on the official list.



All four of the PM’s advisers and eight special assistants enjoy statuses equivalent to ministers – federal or state. Their names are listed as cabinet members.

When PM’s Adviser on Political Affairs Ameer Muqam was contacted, he said that Article 92 dealt with the number of federal and state ministers.

Muqam also enjoys the status of federal minister.

According to him, the current cabinet has 33 federal ministers and 15 state ministers and with the size of 48 members, it was well within the constitutional limit of 49 members.

However, officials insisted that Article 92 provided for the total strength of the cabinet and not just the number of ministers.

This move was even criticised by the PML-N's political allies. They said that the expansion was unnecessary just a month before the end of government’s tenure.

Miftah Ismail, the new finance minister, is not even a member of parliament.

The government insists that it can appoint anyone as a minister in accordance with Article 91 (9).

Political parties argue that Article 91 (9) can only be applied in rare circumstances – for appointing a person as a minister who is not a member of parliament only when there is no practical alternative available.

They insist that the government has two cabinet members assigned with portfolios relating to financial matters. These include State Minister for Finance Rana Afzal Khan and PM’s Special Assistant on Revenue Senator Haroon Akhtar, who has the status of a federal minister.