AFTER a somewhat delay, a 33-member Federal Cabinet was sworn-in on Tuesday, which includes 30 Federal Ministers and three Ministers of State.
PPP’s Qamar Zaman Kaira, PML-N’s Engineer Amir Muqam and Aun Chaudhry have also been appointed as Advisors to the Prime Minister in the new Cabinet.
The fact that some much-talked about names are still left out is an indication that this the first phase of the cabinet formation and it might be expanded in near future to accommodate the coalition partners.
Delay in the formation of the Cabinet was giving fuel to speculations that there were serious differences among the coalition partners over distribution of constitutional offices, Cabinet portfolios and representation of different parties in the new set-up.
In this backdrop, it is satisfying that in the first phase almost all political parties (with the exception of ANP and BNP Mengal) have nominated their representatives for the Cabinet and portfolios have also been distributed through mutual consultations.
PML(N) or Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif showed large-heartedness in conceding important ministries to other parties ignoring understandable party sentiments for accommodation of maximum number of its own members.
The PPP, which got the all-important office of the Speaker, has also been given vital ministries of Foreign Affairs, Commerce and Water Resources besides the most lucrative portfolio of Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety that has an annual budget of Rs 260 billion.
One of the stalwarts of the party Qamar Zaman Kaira has also been adjusted as Advisor to the Prime Minister on Kashmir Affairs but Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar did not take oath in the first instalment and according to media reports he wanted to become a full Minister and not Minister of State as was offered to him.
Apart from the post of Deputy Speaker, JUI(F) of Maulana Fazlur Rehman has been assigned some of the most sought after ministries of Religious Affairs, Communication and Housing & Works.
MQM-P’s Syed Amin-ul-Haq, who looked after Information Technology during PTI’s tenure would retain the Ministry and this continuity augurs well as the Ministry was currently engaged in the launch of several important initiatives including roll out of 5G technology.
Similarly, the Maritime Affairs Ministry also goes to the party’s Syed Faisal Ali Subzwari. As for PML(N), it has retained important but challenging ministries as performance of any Government is judged by the policies, output and achievements of ministries of finance and economic affairs, energy, Petroleum and Natural Resources and Railways.
There are no two opinions that the economic and financial health of the country was precarious as foreign exchange reserves are at their lowest and the budget deficit is increasing with the passage of time.
It is a Herculean task for the new Government to take substantive measures for bringing the economy back on track and at the same time come up to the expectations of the common man who is suffering badly due to record inflation.
However, PML(N) has picked up a strong duo of Miftah Ismail and Ayesha Ghaus Pasha (Minister for Finance and Minister of State for Finance respectively), who have rich experience and background in economics.
Apart from short-term measures, their real test would be to come out with a balanced budget for the next financial year in the given complicated economic and political scenarios.
The choice for Minister for Information and Broadcasting (Marriyum Aurangzeb) is also perfect as she not only looked after the Ministry in the past but also deftly defended the party on media front during difficult and challenging times.
Khawaja Saad Rafiq is the perfect choice for Railways as during his previous stint as Minister for Railways he was able to bring about a substantial improvement in the working and performance of the department.
Hopefully, he would infuse new spirit to the otherwise demoralized institution and see to it that important projects like ML-I move forward on a fast track basis with the active collaboration of China under the CPEC framework.
Inclusion of five women ministers is a welcome development but there is no representation of minorities, which should be ensured in the next phase.
Unfortunately, there are also reports of differences over distribution of constitutional offices with PPP eying at almost all of them, leaving nothing for other parties, who have also suffered and rendered sacrifices for a change.
Bilawal Bhutto has embarked on a mission of squeezing more from PML(N) leader Mian Nawaz Sharif and it is to be seen what emerges from their discussions.
Going by the fact that the coalition government has not much time at its disposal as general election will have to be conducted latest by August next year, their leadership should discard the tendency of showing preference for prized positions and instead contribute their share to help resolve problems of the masses as it is their performance that would matter in the election.
