ISLAMABAD
In an apparent move of accommodating maximum lawmakers of the ruling party in the new cabinet, the government has introduced new ministries, additionally burdening the economy.
Though merger of a couple of ministries seems a better decision, the creation of new ministries was definitely unnecessary.
According to analysts, the creation of new ministries through executive orders would cause loss of taxpayers’ money, as the arrangement may not continue after the remaining eight months of this government. “A new ministry, as per set Rules of Business 1973, should be created after due deliberation in the assembly. A standard operating procedure should be followed for such move,” they said.
“There is no justification for creating a ministry like postal services. Since intervention of prime minister Secretariat has been an issue for independent functioning of various ministries during the past four years, the fresh move will not make any difference in overall performance of the ministries,” they added.
According to them the only reasonable decision was to merge ministry of textile into ministry of commerce. The merger too was made on the request of the new commerce minister, who does business in textile sector. Ministry of Textile has been headless for over two years despite the drastic fall in export of textile made ups.
The next rational decision of the government was to create separate ministry of energy however, the ministry has not been assigned to anyone from the new team. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is likely to keep holding the important ministry. The ministry of planning and development is also presently headless.
Making the total number of cabinet members to 47, President Mamnoon Hussain has administered oath to four new ministers in the presence of Prime Minister Abbasi on Thursday. Daniyal Aziz from Narowal and Mumtaz Ahmed Tarar from Mandi Bahauddin were sworn in as federal ministers while Syed Ayaz Ali Sherazi from Thatta and Mir Dostain Khan Domki from Balochistan took oath as ministers of state. Aziz has been appointed as minister of privatisation, while Tarar has been sworn in as minister for human rights.
Earlier on August 4, the president had administered oath to 43 ministers, including Khawaja Asif, Ahsan Iqbal, Talal Chaudhry, Saad Rafique and Maryam Aurangzeb, among others.
The names for ministers of the new federal cabinet were finalised after days of discussion between the PML-N leadership.
It may be recalled here that the federal cabinet was dissolved after Nawaz Sharif was disqualified by the Supreme Court in a landmark ruling on the Panama Papers case in July.
Earlier, Khaqan Abbasi had directed to constitute seven new ministries and their constituent divisions including ministry of energy with two constituent divisions; power division and petroleum division, ministry of water resources with constituent division of water resources, ministry of postal services, ministry of commerce and textiles, ministry of statistics, ministry of privatisation and ministry of narcotics control. On Friday, a new 43-member cabinet comprising 27 federal ministers and 16 ministers of state had taken their oath of office at the Aiwan-e-Sadr.
