ISLAMABAD - Realising some slackness in governance, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is evaluating the performance of his cabinet and to spruce up its working, he is likely to reshuffle some portfolios as well as bring in some new faces.
Sources informed The Nation that the evaluation process was underway and the detailed report on performance of federal and state ministers and their ministries since their taking the charge would be presented in a special cabinet meeting, which would start on Oct 28 and remain in session for several days.
PML-N sources shared that Premier Sharif was not in a mood to take the cabinet strength to its maximum which is 49 or 50 as per the constitution, because after the passage of 18th constitutional amendment the cabinet strength must not exceed the level of 11 per cent of the total strength of parliament.
With 20 federal minister, 10 state ministers, three advisers and five special assistants the cabinet already has 37 members, thus there is a margin of another dozen slots. But this limited room does not allow the ruling PML-N to lavishly dole out ministerial slots to party MPs and its allies. Party sources further informed that in cabinet expansion special consideration would be given to the MPs from Seraiki belt and a couple of new faces would be taken from southern Punjab with the aim to appease the MPs from that area as they are annoyed with the party leadership for ignoring them after the elections.
There are also reports that parliamentarians from southern Punjab, irrespective of their party affiliations, are planning to form a pressure group to get their demands met by the ruling party; so, the PML-N leadership would definitely be accommodating them in the upcoming cabinet change.
Sources said that even an existing federal minister from southern Punjab could lose his slot due to poor performance over the past one year in office. Or, at least, he would lose the additional charge he was holding along with his main portfolio.
Sources said that either Owais Leghari or Khusro Bakhtiar could make his way to the cabinet. The former has a bit more chances of success as he is from a constituency where party leadership wanted to teach lesson to some disgruntled elements, who were once loyalists of Sharifs and considered to be the party’s vanguard in the province.
To strengthen the party position in Sindh, another MP could be inducted in the cabinet from that province, most probably from interior Sindh where PML-N suffered a serious dent after defection of Mumtaz Bhutto. It is in this backdrop that PML-N Sindh chapter leaders have held a meeting with prime minister on Saturday (Oct 25) at PM House where the cabinet expansion came under discussion. Marvi Memon would likely get a berth in the cabinet in the upcoming reshuffle cum expansion.
A source in the party confirmed that the cabinet expansion would take place in the first half of next month, but the source did not see any major change in key portfolios though some state ministers were in the danger zone and they could lose their seats. The aim of this exercise is to bring in some vibrant and active people to jack up the performance of the government, according to him.
The source hinted at relieving of some of the cabinet members of their additional charges and at the same time also saw bifurcation of the portfolios of some of ministers. Citing an example, he said that the portfolio of sports could be taken back from Minister for Inter-provincial Coordination Riaz Hussain Pirzada.
Sources in the party said that the additional charge of defence too would likely be taken back from Khuwaja Muhammad Asif, who is minister for Water and Power. Similarly, the additional charge of Law and Justice would be taken back from Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed because government had been facing a lot of difficulties in the absence of a fulltime law minister. Federal Minister for Science and Technology Zahid Hamid, who is de facto Law Minister, could again get the portfolio of Ministry of Law and Justice.
Also, few ministers for state would likely be inducted to further spruce up the working of some ministries while some of the incumbent state ministers could even lose their positions, a senior party leader on condition of anonymity said.