May 28, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 22, 1429

KARACHI, May 27: The Sindh cabinet, which already comprises over 41 ministers, six advisers and five special assistants, is likely to go for a third expansion soon when two more ministers and an equal number of advisers/special assistants will be inducted into it.

The new induction in the cabinet will be from the National People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) after the budget session, informed sources said, recalling that the NPP and the PML-Q had already announced that they would support the government in the larger interest of the province to help the PPP-led government in addressing the on-going economic crisis and tackle the pressing issues of increasing unemployment, soaring prices and rising poverty level.

Although the present cabinet has the largest number of ministers, if advisers and special assistants are counted, the Shah cabinet is still behind that of the Arab government, which had 20 ministers, 25 advisers and nine special assistants.

Cabinet insiders told Dawn that with 41 ministers, six advisers and five special assistants, the Shah government is yet to settle. About two dozen ministers, advisers and special assistants did not have furnished offices with necessary staff, while over half-a-dozen ministers were not satisfied with the offices given to them.They said that another serious problem was of allocation of departments as over a dozen ministers appeared not satisfied with the portfolios they were given after the bifurcation of departments.

The secretaries, who used to deal with more than one department during the previous governments, were not happy with the bifurcation and curtailment of their powers.

As transfers and postings of officers, including of secretary-level ones, were affecting good governance because of frequent changes in postings on the likes and dislikes of officials, the chief minister imposed a ban on transfers with effect from May 27.

Amid a financial crunch in Sindh and mounting pressure of the inherited problems of the new government such as law and order, unemployment and price hike are yet to be addressed, the 60-day-old Shah government has been facing problems in allocation of more funds for non-development expenditures.

When his attention was drawn to criticism over the induction of 41 ministers into the cabinet, Sindh PPP general secretary Nafees Siddiqui said if compared with the Arbab cabinet, the strength of the Shah cabinet was not too large.

Besides, the Shah cabinet was quite different from the Arbab cabinet because instead of inducting non-elected persons as advisers, the PPP was pursuing policies to give representation to all parts of the province by inducting elected representatives. Another reason for the number of ministers was to give due representation to minorities and women in the cabinet.

The PPP had a comfortable majority in the Sindh Assembly and was able to form the government on its own. However, in response to the goodwill gesture of the opposition parties for extending unconditional support to Syed Qaim Ali Shah for his unanimous election as leader of the House, the PPP had taken the Muttahida Qaumi Movement on board.

The PPP had a commitment with the people of providing them with Roti, Kapra aur Makan, and its efforts were aimed at honouring the pledge to the people.

By taking all stakeholders on board all efforts of the PPP leadership in the centre as well as in the province to prove that democracy could work in the country and it was democracy alone that could guarantee the rule of law, social justice and a peaceful atmosphere to put the country on road to progress and prosperity, the PPP leader added.