akistan is a federal parliamentary state. This system owes its lineage to the country’s colonial past. In parliamentary form of government, a cabinet is a group of senior ministers who meet regularly, as a constitutional body and in a formal setting, chaired by the chief executive, the prime minister. Depending on its authority as derived from a constitutional structure, a cabinet may formulate policy or just be a consultative institution. Cabinet government is a governance structure in which the executive power lies in a cabinet in which each member enjoys equal influence and the body as a whole bears collective responsibility of its executive decisions.

Cabinets may be of various sizes, reflecting the political and administrative need for collective procedures within a political Executive. It enables a government to present its collective face to assemblies as well as to the public. In addition, the cabinets are administrative devices designed to ensure well-coordinated and effective policy structure. The precise role, size and importance of cabinets vary depending on the system and the state in a given culture of power and governance. The first cabinet of Pakistan, after independence from the British Raj, was a small one. It included Khawaja Nazimuddin, Ghulam Muhammad, Abdur Rab Nishtar, Jogendra Nath Mandal, Ghazanfar Ali Khan and II Chundrigar. This cabinet played a key role in defining early polices and legal structures in the newly created country.

The first cabinet has been described as a ‘cabinet of talent’ because it included highly qualified and experienced individuals from diverse backgrounds such as politicians, economists and legal experts, regardless of their religious and regional affiliations. It was perceived as merit-based selection of individuals with expertise rather than political influence. The cabinet included ministers of Muslim as well as Hindu faith. However, with the demise of Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan, the initial vision of the cabinet of talent frittered away giving rise to factionalism, opportunism and shifting loyalties. Muhammad Waseem notes in his book Political Conflict in Pakistan that “Ministers of the West Pakistan government in early 1958 were described in negative terms” by diplomats communicating public opinion back home.

After the adoption of the 1956 constitution, the state transitioned from a dominion to a republic and a new cabinet was formed. The key figures of Chaudhary Muhammad Ali’s (March-September 1956) and Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy’s (September-October 1956) cabinets included AK Fazlul Huq, Manzoor Qadir, II Chundrigar, Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani, Abdul Sattar Pirzada and Firoz Khan Noon. The early period from 1947 to 1958 resembled a game of musical chairs for prime ministers and cabinets. This eventually led to the imposition of martial law by Iskandar Mirza in 1958.

Historically, cabinets in Pakistan were larger during democratic dispensations than during military regimes. Democratic cabinets reflect representation of regional, class and ideological diversity and multiplicity of political stakeholders in a diverse country. This is a strength. The kind of criticism often witnessed in the mainstream media regarding the size of cabinets is misplaced. Military regimes are credited on the other hand with assigning portfolios to technocrats and bureaucrats. The problem is that while the Executive prioritises interests of the state, cabinet ministers from the parliament prioritise the interests of the people. Therefore, the 18th Amendment stipulates the size of a cabinet and that the ministers should be taken from any house of the parliament, with a majority drawn from the lower house prioritising peoples’ representation.

Ayub’s cabinet counted in Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Muhammad Shoaib, Manzoor Qadir, Lt Gen KM Shaikh, Aziz Ahmad, Ghulam Faruque, Gen Altaf Qadir, Abdul Qayyum Khan and Fazlul Qadir Chaudhary. Ayub had replaced parliamentary system with a presidential setup and introduced Basic Democracies. But it ended up in heightened regional and class disparities and a frustrated public, particularly alienated Bengalis and smaller provinces. His successor, Yahya, included several generals in the cabinet besides Malik Meraj Khalid, Roedad Khan and MM Ahmed. This ended up in East Pakistan seceding as Bangladesh.

Bhutto formed a cabinet which reflected his party ideology and inclusion of the political class including Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, Mian Mahmood Ali Kasuri, Kausar Niazi, JA Rahim, Mubashir Hasan, Ali Ahmad Talpur, Sardar Shaukat Hayat Khan, Rafi Raza and Aslam Raisani as well as Aziz Ahmad and Agha Shahi.

Likewise, Muhammad Khan Junejo’s cabinet, which asserted its authority and provided wholehearted support to its prime minister despite Zia’s repressive regime operating at the top, is considered one of the best in the history of Pakistan. While the Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s governments formed cabinets with political considerations all along, the cabinets of Moeen Qureshi and Gen Musharraf were technocratic in nature. Musharraf arranged for Shaukat Aziz to be elected to the National Assembly from constituencies of Arbab Ghulam Rahim and Major Tahir Sadiq to install him as prime minister.

It is the lack of a developed party system in the country that affects the size of a cabinet because governments, most of the times, are formed with alliances and coalitions in which a large number of parties bargain for their share of power. Sometimes, inclusion of strong members and electables makes cabinets inordinately large. For instance, Khusro Bakhtiar and others formed Janubi Punjab Mahaz and successfully blackmailed the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf to attain ministerial positions. Moreover, regional representation adds to the size of cabinets. East Pakistan and smaller provinces complained about their lack of representation in cabinets of Presidents Ayub and Yahya, while Zia inducted many ministers on account of religious affiliations. Most of his cabinet lost in the partyless elections of 1985, which was an expression of resentment by the people.

The PTI government under Imran Khan and the PDM government too had larger cabinets due to political considerations. The present government was initially run with a small, partly technocratic cabinet. It has now become a sizeable cabinet through the inclusion of coalition partners for political considerations. More or less, all political partners have been accommodated. Nonetheless, the Punjab dominates the PML-N’s cabinet due to the party’s support base. The smaller provinces have yet to be represented equitably.

The writer heads the History Department at University of Sargodha. He has worked as a research fellow at Royal Holloway College, University of London. He can be reached at abrar.zahoor@hotmail.com His X handle: @AbrarZahoor1