Daily Times Editorial June 9, 2013

Federal cabinet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has inducted a 25-member federal cabinet with 16 full ministers and nine ministers of state. The cabinet members took oath from President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday. There were few surprises in the cabinet lineup, with most being men, old loyalists of Nawaz Sharif from his previous stints in power, and overwhelmingly (19 out of 25) from Punjab, the PML-N’s stronghold. While this appears natural given the makeup and mandate of the PML-N, it does raise questions about the new government’s ability to take the other provinces along in a situation where federal and provincial authorities nee d to work together on very many crucial issues. No women made it to full minister, two having to be satisfied with minister of state. Nawaz Sharif has decided to retain the defence and foreign affairs ministries to himself, the former significant in the light of the events of 1999, the latter for the centrality of relations with the world powers that be, especially the US, at the best of times, let alone at the present fraught juncture. Sartaj Aziz has been appointed adviser to the prime minister on national security and foreign affairs to bring his experience to the deliberations of the government on these two critical areas. Sanaullah Zehri, perhaps to compensate him for the loss of his much wanted chief ministership of his native Balochistan province, has been appointed a special assistant to the prime minister. Ex-ambassador Tariq Fatemi strengthens the foreign policy team as another special assistant to the prime minister. Some appointments more or less were expected, if the candidates did not ‘appoint themselves’ on merit. Ishaq Dar was the obvious and widely respected choice as Finance Minister. Despite a few holdovers from the Musharraf era, the appointment of Chaudhry Nisar as Interior Minister and Pervez Rasheed as Information Minister raised no eyebrows. The former is known for his pugnaciousness, and he will need it and much more to tackle the disturbed law and order situation. The new Interior Minister vowed to extend across the board assistance to the provinces in intelligence sharing and deployment of federal security forces, including the Rangers, wherever and whenever required. He admitted it was a challenging task to safeguard the life and property of citizens, especially given the terrorist threat. Chaudhry Nisar promised the appointments of all heads of departments under his domain strictly on merit. Pervez Rasheed had served the PML-N as its point man vis-à-vis the media for a considerable period, so his choice too seemed preordained. The incoming Information Minister started his innings by promising the ministry’s secret funds, which have been the subject of a case in recent days before the Supreme Court, would not be used for personal or political gains. What they might be used for instead was left to the imagination. Meanwhile PPP’s Khursheed Shah has been notified as Leader of the Opposition, on the basis that his party has the largest number of seats (41) in the National Assembly out of all the opposition parties. He was also the only applicant, the PTI and MQM being at daggers drawn during and after the elections and therefore unable to mount a common challenge for the post, the only way they could have blocked the PPP nominee. President Asif Ali Zardari has called a joint session of parliament tomorrow, Monday, June 10, which he is expected to address. This is a constitutional requirement but the irony is that the president is expected to read out a speech given to him by the incumbent government. Since in this case the government is of the rival PML-N, the hope is that President Zardari’s sang froid will not fail him when mouthing the PML-N’s words. It is a sign of the maturing of democratic institutions that a president belonging to and even being the leader of a rival party, the PPP, accepts the constitutional obligation of faithfully reflecting the philosophy of a rival party in power, whatever his subjective feelings on the subject. These elections have proved the incremental maturing of the polity and the electorate. If state institutions now follow suit, the prospects of consolidating the democratic system will be hugely improved.