Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is set to sack some ministers before inducting some new ones in a much anticipated Cabinet reshuffle, sources said.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is set to sack some ministers before inducting some new ones in a much anticipated Cabinet reshuffle, sources said.
Close aides of Mr Sharif said he was in consultation with his political confidants to work out a plan to change the faces in the Cabinet.
“The Prime Minister will sack those who have not been performing well and bring in some brighter candidates,” said a leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz).
The government, led by the PML-N, will complete half of its five-year term in the first week of December.
The government had announced a performance review of the Cabinet a few months back but could not complete this process.
The PML-N leader said the Mr Sharif wanted to avoid internal instability as the country was already facing political unrest.
PML-N sources said the evaluation of ministerial performances would be completed in a month and then the poor performers and tainted ministers would be shown the door.
Ruling party parliamentarians, some of whom are themselves aspirants to Cabinet slots, said that over a couple of dozen party MPs are trying to get a seat in the Cabinet, but only five or six could be accommodated if none of the existing members are expelled.
Presently, the cabinet has 19 federal ministers, 10 state ministers, four PM advisers (with a status of federal or state minister) and 11 special assistants to PM (who also enjoy the status of federal or state minister). Under the 18th Constitutional Amendment the cabinet strength could be 11 percent (at the maximum) of the total parliament membership. That means the cabinet could not exceed the figure of 49 while right now the cabinet has 44 members. A party leader considered close to the Prime Minister said it was unclear who would be ousted from the cabinet but mostly the state ministers are likely to lose their jobs to accommodate fresh faces. He said that government was expected to induct a full-fledged defence minister in the upcoming reshuffle while a couple of MPs from southern Punjab would be added to the cabinet to fortify party’s position in the Saraiki belt. Similarly, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazal) would be getting a slot of state minister in the reshuffle, as per the coalition agreement with the party. About the recently made induction in the federal cabinet, the sources said that these were the need-based inductions as Zahid Hamid was appointed the Minister for Climate Change for proper representation of the country in Paris moot on climate change. Similarly, they said, Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry was appointed state minister for CADD to give a message to the people of federal capital that government was seriousness about resolving their problems, particularly in the rural areas.
