The PPP-led coalition government further consolidated its numerical strength in parliament with the MQM rejoining the federal cabinet on Tuesday as President Asif Ali Zardari administered oath to three of its members, Dr Farooq Sattar, Babar Khan Ghauri and Nadeem Ihsan.
With the MQM rejoining the cabinet, the coalition has now clinched almost a two-thirds majority in both houses of parliament, being only two members short of the majority in the Senate and having a clear two-thirds majority in the National Assembly. With the swearing in of MQM ministers, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s cabinet will have 39 ministers – 30 federal ministers and nine state ministers – with the PPP having a major chunk of 21 ministers and one state minister, the PML-Q having seven federal ministers and seven state ministers, the MQM having two federal ministers and one state minister, and the ANP having one federal minister.
The oath-taking is a part of the PML-Q’s strategy to form a broad-based national government to help resolve the issues impeding national growth and repair the country’s dwindling economy. Now, the treasury will face no hurdle in overcoming the constitutional hiccups and sailing through the legislation process. The government is also equally poised to get the budget passed easily.
At a formal ceremony, President Zardari administered oath to Sattar, Ghauri and Ihsan as federal ministers and ministers of state. A source told Pakistan Today that Sattar would be assigned the Labour Ministry while Ghauri will get the slot of ports and shipping minister. Ihsan will be given the portfolio of state minister for either labour and manpower or ports and shipping, the source added.
The PPP leadership was so eager to get glued to the PML-Q that it even ignored the repeated requests by Raza Rabbani, the Inter-Provincial Coordination Minister, who had been pleading the party not to get into an alliance with the PML-Q – a party which he says was introduced by a dictator, General (r) Pervez Musharraf. Ignoring Rabbani’s advice, the prime minister even approved his resignation as federal minister, which he had handed in to protest against the PPP’s deal with the PML-Q, and forwarded the resignation to the president for acceptance.
With the addition of 25 MNAs of the MQM, Gilani’s government now will have the support of at least 230 MNAs in a House of 342 – a two-thirds majority, for the first time since the 2008 elections, helping the government to get the upcoming budget passed easily. According to data available to Pakistan Today, the PPP has 127 MNAs, while the PML-Q will add another 47 out of its total strength of 50 MNAs, as Humayun Saifullah is likely to follow his elder brother’s group, the PML-Likeminded, and Marvi Memon and Awais Leghari have publicly asked for allocation of seats on opposition benches in protest against their party’s decision to join the treasury benches.
The ANP’s 13 MNAs also remain a question mark as Khawaja Khan Hoti does not count himself with the party, so the government will have support of 12 ANP members. The five legislators of the PML-Functional support the treasury benches, along with the lone NPP MNA Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi. Out of the total members from FATA, 11 support the government while one seat is vacant, and six other independent MNAs also support the treasury benches.
With the shifting of the PML-Q to the treasury benches, the opposition is left with 90 MNAs of the PML-N, with one independent MNA, Akhtar Kanju, supporting them. Another independent MNA Maulana Asmatullah, three PML-Q dissidents, Aftab Khan Sherpao of the PPP-Sherpao, and seven Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl members are in the opposition as well, taking the total tally to 103. In the Upper House of parliament, the government is also comfortable with 64 senators, only two short of the two-thirds majority in a House of 100.
The PPP has a total of 27 senators, with the PML-Q having the support of 12 senators out of its total 21, as nine of its members have decided to sit on the opposition benches, including Senators Tariq Azeem, Jamal Khan Leghari, Gulshan Saeed, Javed Ali Shah, Naeem Hussain Chattha, while Senator Salim Saifullah Khan is leading the PML-Likeminded group, which has the support of Haroon Akhtar and Ghaffar Qureshi.
A source told Pakistan Today that Senator Mohammed Ali Durrani is also likely to sit on the opposition benches in the next few days because of his differences with his party leadership on their opposition to the revival of the Bahawalpur province. The treasury benches also enjoy the support of nine independent senators out of the total 13 independents in the House.
One senator from the Jamhoori Watan Party, six each from the MQM and the ANP, two from the BNP-A, will also remain part of the treasury, which takes the tally to 64. The opposition comprises nine senators from the MMA, seven from the PML-N, nine PML-Q dissidents, one senator from the PkMAP, four JUI-F members, with independents supporting the JUI-F and one independent also supporting the nationalist parties of Balochistan, and one senator from the PPP-Sherpao, bring the total to 36.
Coalition gets required numbers for smooth sailing
