From 18 to 10
All portfolios are, ultimately, the chief minister’s portfolios. This has to be said slowly, soothingly, like one would to a child.
The Punjab chief minister has ten portfolios unto himself. This is after he let go of eight of them the other day. No other political party in Pakistan would sustain the tension that comes from a provincial chief having eighteen ministries. But not the PML(N).
Legislators make it to the house after a torturously difficult electoral process. A party ticket does make things easier, yes, but few and far between are members of the house that make it there only by hanging on to the coat-tails of a popular party. A berth in the house is preceded by doing the rounds in the constituencies, wearing a skin as thick as the one only a politician can have, making a number of judgment calls about local rivalries and maintaining a constant contact throughout one’s tenure if one is a returning candidate. By not trusting any of these individuals with a ministry, the chief minister is shortchanging not just them but the institution of his party.
The public and the media quickly brought up the health portfolio (which he still retains) in the aftermath of the spurious drugs crisis. While it is true that the sad episode still might have occurred even if there had been a full-time health minister in the Punjab, the likelihood of a dedicated minister having more time to think about restructuring drug inspection protocols would have been greater.
It is the bureaucracy that is running the Punjab these days. The babus lord over the politicians. The correct way to treat the bureaucracy is a two-pronged policy of unhinging them from their colonial pretensions but respecting them as servants of the state should be. The Punjab government is doing the exact opposite: it has empowered the bureaucracy more than it ever should be and yet the chief minister is known for his summary executions and inexplicably furious fits towards them.
As the League struggles to place itself in its new, anti-establishment avatar, it would do the party good to realise that life isn’t beautiful anymore. Things can fall apart, politically, if it doesn’t play ball. Makhdoom Javed Hashmi will be a mere first if the party doesn’t treat its elected members right.
And as an afterthought – because that is what it is in our republic – it would lead to some good governance as well.
