ISLAMABAD – The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) on Friday finally gave Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani a go-ahead to dissolve his cabinet when he considered it appropriate and form a new team of ministers in accordance with Article 92 of the constitution which provided that the size of the cabinet should not exceed eleven percent of the total strength of the parliament.
Although this constitutional provision will be applicable after the next elections, the PPP CEC, a source told Pakistan Today, decided to maintain the size of the cabinet in accordance with the constitution. The total strength of parliament is 442 – National Assembly 342 members and the Senate 100 members. The prime minister, therefore, can induct 49 ministers in his cabinet. It was decided that all coalition partners – the ANP, the MQM, and the PML-F – of the government will be given one ministerial slot each.
Earlier, the JUI-F had three ministers in the federal cabinet while the MQM and the ANP had two ministers each. The JUI-F is now no more in the coalition. It was also decided that except three incumbents no ministers of state would be appointed. The ministers of state who are likely to continue are Hina Rabbani Khar, Mehreen Anwar Raja and Ayatullah Durrani. Among the federal ministers, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Khursheed Shah, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Naveed Qamar, Babar Awan, Nazar Mohammad Gondal, Amin Fahim, Rehman Malik and Hafeez Shaikh are most likely to again make it to the next cabinet.
PPP Punjab President Imtiaz Safdar Warriach, who is a state minister, is likely to be appointed federal minister. Addressing the CEC, President Asif Zardari, who is also co-chairman of the PPP, did not mince his words and said he wanted a “lean and mean” cabinet. As Aitzaz Ahsan recommended that it should also be “clean”, the president expounded that he intentionally did not use the word “clean” because it had been (mis)used against Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto and him as well.
However, the president did commit that the next cabinet would comprise the individuals with unblemished reputation, integrity, competence and efficiency. This made many look here and there with Babar Awan separately meeting the president, and Rehman Malik also meeting the prime minister obviously to find out whether they were on board or not as they were among those facing allegations. While all members of the CEC, including the ministers endorsed the decision to dissolve the cabinet, Amin Fahim took the initiative and presented his resignation to the president.
A source said when the president appreciated Amin Fahim’s contribution to the party as his colleague and as a senior, Babar Awan, without knowing that the president was observing him, took a paper from an official, wrote his resignation and gave it to the president. “This is not the kind of promptness that I am looking for,” the president remarked sarcastically and the law minister’s attempt to be judged and appreciated equally and publicly with Amin Fahim failed.
Speaking on other issues of importance, an upbeat President Zardari significantly appeared at ease as he, without going into trivia of his strategy to steer the country out of the economic crisis, told his top aides that he had a “Plan-B” if the $11.3 billion standby arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – of which Pakistan had already received $7.5 billion – remained suspended. “If there is no breakthrough with the IMF, I have a Plan-B and I will soon share its details with you,” the president said.
The president also dropped a tacit hint that his son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would soon enter the political arena when he said, “Bilawal is no more a child… you will decide their role when my children return (to the country).” He also took his party into confidence about the investigation into Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and said his children, who were more of their mother’s children, were following the investigation.
He told the CEC that Benazir Bhutto’s BlackBerry phone recovered from Bilawal House was a non-functional one which he had given to the staff there. “My children will not forgive the killers of their mother but our revenge is political… I want General (r) [Prevez] Musharraf live long to return to Pakistan and experience what politics is all about and I am sad that “Leghar” [Farooq Leghari] did not live to distribute the forms of BISP with his own hands,” the president said.
