PESHAWAR: A 13-member NWFP cabinet began working on Monday. The figure is taken as a bad omen in Western societies except the French, who consider 13 as a good omen.
Apart from Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani, who is from the JUI both Jamaat-i-Islami and JUI have six members each in the cabinet.
Sardar Mohammad Idrees (Abbottabad), Maulana Fazli-Ali (Swabi), Hafiz Akhtar Ali (Mardan), Qari Mahmood Khan (Swat), Asif Iqbal (Peshawar) and Zafar Azam Khan (Karak) belong to the JUI. Raja Faisal Zaman (Haripur), Fazal Rabbani (Swabi), Hussain Ahmed (Swat), Sirajul Haq (Dir), Inayatullah (Upper Dir) and Hashmat Khan (Peshawar) are the JI’s nominees on the cabinet.
Zafar Azam is an old guard; he has been a minister in the past.
Two independent MPAs — Sardar Idrees and Raja Faisal Zaman from Abbottabad, who later joined the JUI and JI, respectively — have been inducted into the cabinet. Hafiz Akhtar Ali, popular for his prayer calls in House, has also got a portfolio.
The allocation of ministries may cause a district-wise tussle as Mansehra, Battagram, Kohistan, D.I. Khan, Kohat, Charsadda and Nowshera have got no representation on the cabinet.
People are pining much hopes on the MMA government and waiting for a good performance from the honest, simple and pious ministers. The task ahead has become a laborious one for the MMA leaders who are well aware of the fact that they cannot get the same number of seats again if they failed to come up to the expectations. They also know that in a quasi-democratic setup they cannot deliver much and that their permanent stay in the government will merely provide a civilian facade to the real power brokers. Their decision not to destabilize the Jamali government smacks of their compulsion and not political maturity.
Two days ago, the PPP parliamentary leader in the assembly, Abdul Akbar Khan from Mardan, said in the House that the King and Pope alliance would pave the way for a bloody revolution.
Another self-contradictory alliance between the pro- and anti- US forces has reached its zenith with the fragile coalition in Balochistan. The pro-US quarters want to tame a panther, which can prove to be much dangerous if allowed to roam about freely from Swabi to Taftan (Balochistan), the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan where a US-led operation against the remnants of the Taliban and Al Qaeda is going on.
The Pope has been a natural ally of the hawks and adventurists in the past. The MMA components had been ally of the military and the US for many years during the so-called Cold War and later during the anti-Soviet Union war in Afghanistan. They had been closer to the establishment even during the US bombing on Afghanistan after the 9/11. The present MMA leadership extended their shoulders (in the form of anti-US processions) to the rulers during those pressing days to ease the US pressure on the government.
The MMA, surprisingly, is ready to lend support to Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali, the sole custodian of Musharraf’s reforms agenda, but it is reluctant to accept Musharraf as the uniformed president.
The very first announcement made by Durrani after taking the oath as the chief minister was about liquor and gambling. The government put a ban on the non-existent pubs and gambling dens in the province. It is a covert business which has been operating smoothly since the ban clamped by the late Z.A. Bhutto. It will make no difference now either, except that the rates of liquor at the local market will go up.