It appears that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is taking his time to appoint his cabinet, perhaps because he is aware of the precarious nature of the ruling coalition and wants to bring with him all of his allies, particularly those who have defected from the PTI coalition government and joined the former opposition.
PPP and PML-N sources tell that the parties’ leaders have resolved to offer every one of its allies a cabinet position and to give them the ministries of their choosing.
There were eight political groups and four independents in the coalition, they added, and because Sharif was elected prime minister by a narrow two-vote margin, he does not want to start his term in office with any misconceptions.
In response to Sharif’s request for cabinet members, sources close to the PPP claim the party’s leadership has told them they have no wish to join his government and instead want to provide him with outside support instead. Mr Sharif, on the other hand, is adamant that the party ally with him.
Both the PML-N and the PPP are eager to include their allies and are prepared to offer them their pick of several cabinet positions.
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was invited to an Iftar meal by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
“It’s important to us that the current government succeeds, because we realise how fragile our coalition is.”
“This has not been our intention all along,” claimed a PPP leader, adding, “We are here for business, not for portfolios or privileges.”
Mr Sharif was urging that the PPP join the federal government because he thought it would send a bad message to the people if they remained out of the cabinet, the PPP leader, who is privy to cabinet formation discussions, said.
A PML-N MNA from Faisalabad who accompanied Mr Sharif to his talks with the presidents of all the allied parties claimed in an interview with a private TV station that the new cabinet will be established with consensus in the next couple of days.
According to Mr Sanaullah, the allies demanded nothing from Mr Sharif at the discussions but urged the PM to tell them how they might help him.
After creating a government, the PML-N leader explained, they didn’t debate a formula for distributing ministries since they were focused on removing Imran Khan’s “incompetent” PTI administration as the first duty before them. He did say, however, that at the time, it was determined that all decisions would be made by agreement.
PPP were more interested in winning constitutional posts than cabinet positions, according to a senior PPP leader He said that the resignations of the speaker and deputy speaker of the National Assembly had already left two constitutional posts empty, and that they were also preparing to oust Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjarani. The PPP was interested in the speaker’s office, the chairman of the Senate, and possibly the presidency because they were expecting Dr Arif Alvi to retire from his position.
While Syed Naveed Qamar was already named as the PPP speaker, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf has also been put forth for consideration, according to sources.
