The decision to reduce the size of the federal cabinet is a sensible move. The Sindh government also removed 12 advisors and the Punjab government made a similar move by doing away with heads of various task forces who were enjoying perks and privileges without contributing significantly to good governance. These decisions are in line with the public demand for reducing the size of federal and provincial cabinets. Hopefully, the provincial governments will rationalise the size of their cabinets because they need to shed more weight.
The setting up of a small cabinet is going to be a difficult task for any government which is a coalition. In such a scenario, some posts are given to coalition partners to keep them happy. Now, the major challenge will be how to accommodate the coalition partners when the number of ministers is being reduced. Further, the major coalition partners also endeavour to satisfy different factions and lobbies within its fold by giving away cabinet positions.
The new federal cabinet should reflect a good combination of professionalism and political balancing. It should also take into account the imperatives of Pakistans current economic problems. The ministers who have performed poorly or have faced corruption charges may be advised to work for their respective parties because this parliament is now entering the fourth year.
There is a lot of hue and cry about corruption and misuse of state resources for personal and partisan gains. Some of these charges may be concocted but even then the prime minister and chief ministers should seriously consider why such complaints have been there? Had the performance of the governments been to the satisfaction of a large section of the populace, corruption would not have been such an issue. Now, corruption is part of the political discourse along with poor governance.
An interesting report of misuse of official position for serving partisan agenda came in the press a couple of days ago from Balochistan. A section of the press reported on February 5 that Maulana Abdul Wasey, senior minister in the Balochistan cabinet, belonging to JUI(F), collected Rs. 90 million from his fellow members of the provincial assembly for constructing a seminary in his constituency in return for facilitating their tasks. This is a partisan political move because the JUI(F) uses seminary students for street agitation for its political demands. If this report is confirmed, it is a clear misuse of official position for ones preferred partisan goal.
There is a need to recognise the difference between the personal domain and the official or public domain. Anything that is not directly linked with the official responsibility falls in the personal or private domain and the official position should not be used for that purpose. Accepting commission for facilitating major contracts from the government or any other major task is a clear misuse of official position.
The retrenchment of the cabinet and prevention of the misuse of ones official position for personal gains must be encouraged. However, these measures make a small contribution to addressing Pakistans acute economic problems. Pakistan faces two kinds of economic challenges which produce a host of socio-economic crises. These economic challenges are conservation of state resources and generation of new resources. These are such complex and serious issues that the government alone cannot address these. The opposition and the government need to work together to pursue strategies to cope with Pakistans economic decay.
Take the problem of corruption and misuse of state resources that cannot be addressed by a single party. Corruption is not limited to the cabinet ministers. It neither started with the establishment of the present federal government nor will it end with the exit of this government. Corruption is so deep rooted in society that all the political parties have to join together to control it. The officials and others cannot be taken to task without the due process of law. Further, there is a need to change prevalent attitudes in society so that tolerance for corruption is reduced.
The cooperation of all political parties is needed to encourage the parliamentarians to voluntarily surrender their perks that cost the state treasury. This is going to be a symbolic move for calling upon other sections of the populace to make sacrifices for the state. Another area of reduction of expenditure is the funding to the parliamentarians for various development projects. This funding can be reduced only by mutual agreement.
The generation of new resources also requires an effort from all the parties because if the tax department plays tough with the business and traders they go on strike disrupting traffic in major roads in the cities. Major political parties, especially the PML(N) and the MQM, quickly take up the cause against the injustice by the government because these two parties draw main support from them. Similarly, the government cannot impose new taxes or rationalise old taxes because no political party is willing to advise their supporters and voters to accept new taxes or at least pay whatever is legally and morally due.
The provincial governments have to play an important role in mobilising new resources. Agriculture tax can be enforced by the provincial assemblies. Similarly, the provincial governments are primarily responsible for managing prices of essential goods and law and order. As all the major parties are sharing power either at the federal level or in the provinces, they need to work together to cope with the economic crisis.
Pakistans economic predicament can be addressed by a long-term and comprehensive approach backed by all political parties. It requires wholesome efforts to stop the wastage of state resources and conserving them for better use. New resources will have to be generated which is more difficult because the notion of the citizens obligation to the state has weakened in Pakistan. Everybody wants the state to serve them without recognising the corresponding responsibility of enabling the state to perform its basic tasks.
Even if the PPP-led federal government and all provincial governments are replaced with a new set of leaders, these problems will haunt them as well. Pakistans current problems are structural and require a more serious effort by all the political parties and societal groups rather than these leaders confining themselves to giving political sermons or waiting for the government to collapse due to economic failure. The ramification of an economic failure will go far beyond the PPP.
The writer is an independent political and defence analyst.
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