Our bloated, oversized federal cabinet is not becoming of a country facing a severe financial crunch. As far as selling ideas to the public goes, the imposition of new taxes and the removal of subsidies become very difficult when the pomp of the ruling elite is as evident as it is today. Our public discourse is dotted with the same stock examples of governmental extravagance: bullet-proof cars, a larger-than-required federal cabinet, foreign visits and what have you. Now though, in the larger scheme of things, given the scale of the fiscal deficit, skimming the aforementioned fat might not make a really big difference as far as the numbers go. But a little rightsizing can go a long way in terms of public diplomacy.
It is heartening news, then, that the federal cabinet, it is being reported, is going to be right-sized. The 18th amendment, and the devolution of certain ministries contained therein, ensured that the federal cabinet would be reduced. Not by merging various ministries into their previous, composite form but by simply removing the devolved ministries. This has already happened to five ministries. The next stage in devolution is to take place on the 28th of February.
The size of cabinets in parliamentary democracies, specially those without two-party systems, is notoriously difficult to reduce from any existing strength. Internal power struggles, coupled with necessary coalitions with smaller parties ensure a measure of patronage towards them and a ministry or two usually does the trick. Each and every existing berth in the cabinet, even obscure, one-trick pony ministries like that of the Post, are demanded within the corridors of power with effervescence. The previous regime, then, is to be blamed for the large size of our present cabinet when it had then yielded the biggest cabinet in our history during its tenure.
It is hoped that the provincial governments are ready, not just for the newer responsibilities that the devolved ministries will come with but also skim off their own fat in addition to devolving relevant portfolios to the local government level as well.
