PM Abbasi makes half century of cabinet members

ISLAMABAD: Within the first fortnight of his tenure, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi scored half century of his cabinet members including federal ministers, ministers of state and advisers. With the latest appointment of six advisers to the prime minister, the strength of cabinet members has reached 53. 

After taking oath of office of the prime minister on August 1, Abbasi initially inducted 43-member cabinet which included 27 federal ministers and 16 ministers of state.  A few days later four new ministers took oath at the President House, bringing the number of members of the federal cabinet to 47. The new inductees include two ministers and two ministers of state.

Last weekend, the prime minister further expanded his cabinet by appointing six advisers including Lieutenant General Nasser Janjua (Retd) as National Security Adviser, Sartaj Aziz as deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, Sardar Mehtab Abbasi, Jam Mashooq Ali, Amir Muqam and Irfan Siddiqui.

All these advisers, who had also served former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the same capacity (as advisers), have been given the status of federal ministers. Now Prime Minister Abbasi is expected to appoint a few special assistants -- almost all of those who were serving Nawaz Sharif till his ouster. These included Khawaja Zaheer, Zafarullah Khan, Dr Asif Kirmani, Haroon Akhtar etc. During Nawaz Sharif tenure the maximum strength of special assistants was nine. These special assistants were enjoying the status of minister of state.

Under former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, the cabinet members’ strength which was 25 (including advisers and special assistants) in 2013 had later increased to 43 including 21 federal ministers, nine ministers of state, four advisers to the PM and nine special assistants to the PM.

Soon after coming into power former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had massively reduced the size of the federal secretariat including that of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat as a move to reduce public spending and ensure good governance. However, later he started adding up cabinet members, which resulted into creation of more and more ministries and divisions. The incumbent prime minister too had to create new ministries to adjust his bloated cabinet.