New federal cabinet

New prime minister selected the federal cabinet. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi choose the federal cabinet after the long deliberations with top party leaders. Ch Nisar opted himself out from the new cabinet. Only handful of new faces chosen in the cabinet. The rest are old faces which were part of previous cabinet of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Some cabinet members changed their portfolios. Khawaja Asif been made foreign minister, Ahsan Iqbal becomes interior minister while Khuram Dastagir get defence ministry. Talal Chaudhry, Arshad Laghari, Junaid Anwar Chaudhry and some other new faces been inducted in the cabinet.

Baluchistan, South Punjab and Sindh also get more share in the cabinet. Dera Ghazi khan district got two federal ministries. It seems that new cabinet has been chosen to keep the next elections in mind. All the influential families and groups within the party has been accommodated. South Punjab got five new ministers. Mushahid ullah Khan has also returned back in the cabinet. He was forced to resign after giving controversial interview  on a private news channel regarding the role of some military officers in the sit-in of Imran khan in 2014.

New cabinet will over see the completion of all the important projects to get more votes in the next elections. The ministerial positions will not only strengthen the personal political position of the ministers but also strengthen the party in these districts. It seems that the federal government will spend huge amount of money on development projects through the sitting members of parliament.

It is clear that the focus of the new cabinet will not be on to improve the governance and delivery of services to the masses but to garner the maximum support for the elections. It is unlikely that the new cabinet will take major policy decisions or change the policies but instead it will continue to follow the policies of the previous cabinet and government.

It is a good sign for the Pakistani democracy that one government was replaced by the other one from the same party. One thing has been established that one needs parliamentary majority to become prime minister and to form the government. One prime minister was replaced by the other . It is also good sign that opposition parties participated in the democratic process in the parliament. If the democratic process continued in the country without any intervention and interval then the democratic traditions and process will take root.

Even though, prime minister failed to complete the full term of five years in office but the parliament might be able to complete its full term. The government should strengthen the parliament. All the policies and decisions should be debated and discussed in the parliament before being implemented. The Prime Minister and his cabinet should give proper time to the parliament.