ISLAMABAD Jan 8: The planned expansion in Jamali cabinet has been put off for the time being, at least till the Senate elections were over on Feb 24, official sources told Dawn on Wednesday.
A list of at least five MNAs from the ruling PML-Q and allied parties and independents including Omar Ayub Khan from NWFP, Sumaira Malik of Millat Party, two representatives of MQM and one from independents was almost complete when the Senate polls were postponed, the sources said.
The decision to postpone the expansion of the cabinet has been taken after the consideration that the newly elected members from the Senate may also be included in the second batch of the cabinet.
According to sources the Jamali government was under tremendous pressure for allotment of tickets to some of the confidants of President Pervez Musharraf who would be agents of the continuity. They include besides Shaukat Aziz who has been inducted as adviser to the prime minister, Lt-Gen Javed Ashraf Qazi and former Sindh governor Mohammedmian Soomro.
Sources said that the premier had discussed this aspect with the president in his meeting on Tuesday and got his nod. He also discussed the matter with a PML-Q delegation led by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.
The sources said that the delay in the Senate polls till Feb 24 as accepted by President Musharraf on the demand of MMA had in fact given Mr Jamali a breathing space as he was facing immense pressures from various interest groups and individuals who had supported him in the vote of confidence.
The biggest anxiety for Mr Jamali is to keep his cabinet within a reasonable limit while accommodating all those groups or individual MNAs who have extended their support to him.
His present cabinet consists of 21 ministers and four advisers out of which at least a couple would get Senate tickets and become ministers. There is a convention that the Senate is also to be given proportionate representation which would mean at least half a dozen senators will be accommodated.
In this scenario Mr Jamali was finding it very difficult to pick all the aspirants for the berth in his cabinet as almost all the 16 MNAs who voted for him in his Dec 30 trust vote were promised either ministry or any other high profile engagement in his government.
He was facing major brunt from his own party, the PML-Q, whose MNAs were disappointed in selection of the first batch of cabinet and rewarding with prize ministry to those who had switched over their loyalties from other parties.
