PM loses control on his cabinet, party

ISLAMABAD: Serious cracks within the cabinet and political wrangling among senior PML-N leaders have raised far-reaching questions about Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s firmness to effectively run his government as well as the party.

Like never before, not only the cabinet ministers have brought their fights in the public but the party leaders are also holding press conferences against each other and behaving like an insubordinate and unruly classroom.

Some senior party leaders believe that the 2014 “London conspiracy” has badly shattered the confidence of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif which resulted in the present disorder in both the cabinet and the party.

“Nawaz Sharif is no more the same in his firmness as he used to be,” a senior PML-N leader said, adding that he has to be firm to discipline his cabinet as well as the senior party leadership. Otherwise, it is feared, the situation could be exploited to the disadvantage of the democratic system.

Amongst the top PML-N leadership, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Khawaja Asif have been exchanging blows in public in the past and they are doing the same even now.A clash between three key ministers- Khawaja Asif, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Ahsan Iqbal - has also recently made headlines. Interestingly, these ministers are not shy of discussing their differences in public. The issue is about the role of the Planning Commission.

Instead of discussing the issue in close door meetings to get it settled, it is publicly debated whether the Planning Commission needs to continue or should be abolished.

While the leading federal ministers are washing their dirty linen in public, in Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah and Sher Ali- senior PML-N leader from Faisalabad and father of minister of state for water and power - are at each other’s throat. They have also chosen to fight their battle in public and through media.

Although differences do exist in every party and among cabinet members, the present government is unique for discussing its internal fights on media. Much has been reported by the press about differences between Sartaj Aziz and Tariq Fatmi but none of them ever hinted any such thing in public or before the media.

There are also reports about differences between some key PM aides, sitting in the PM office, and a few federal ministers but here too the concerned parties avoided mentioning such differences in public.

There have also been differences between former law secretary Barrister Zafarullah, who was later made PM’s advisor and is now in charge of Economic Affairs Division, and Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt. However, they also avoided to discuss their differences in the media.

It is said that the cabinet ministers are supposed to work as a team to assist the prime minister in achieving his goals and objectives. Without a team work, it is hard for the cabinet to achieve the set goals and this is where the Nawaz Sharif government is seriously failing.

Nandipur project fiasco is linked with the reported tussle between the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Water and Power Minister Khawaja Asif. LNG, which was promised to be imported in November last year, is still a hazy dealing.

Prime Minister had committed in his first cabinet meeting in June 2013 that he would review the performance of his ministers. He promised that only those ministers will survive who would perform. However, during the last 28 months neither any review has been done nor any minister has been shown the door.

There are some ministers, who do not bother to go to their offices even in months.A close aide to the prime minister when asked said having small differences between ministers or advisers is beauty of democracy. He said these mutual differences are not creating any hurdle in progress being achieved in the country. He said the premier continued to remove any misunderstandings between his colleagues.