n March 4 last year, the parliament elected Shahbaz Sharif as the 24th prime minister of the country. Incidentally, he was the 23rd as well. Sharif promised to pull the country out of the quicksand inherited from a ragtag administration of the cricketer-turned-politician prime minister, Imran Khan. Sharif’s comrades claimed at the time that he would perform the miracle expected of him with a handful of ministers and advisors. His information minister, Ataullah Tarar, had said in a TV programme that a “small cabinet [will be] formed…The PM’s vision is to allot ministries to those who work hard and will take the country out of the crisis.”

Almost a year on, the small cabinet has swollen to more than double its original size with twelve new federal ministers, nine ministers of state, three advisors and four special assistants. The new federal ministers are Hanif Abbasi, Mueen Wattoo, Sardar Muhammad Yousaf, Aurangzeb Khan Khichi, Rana Mubashir Iqbal, Reza Hayat Hiraj, Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Ali Pervez Malik, Shaza Fatima, Junaid Anwar Chaudhry, Khalid Hussain Magsi and Mustafa Kamal.

The new ministers of state are Talal Chaudhry, Abdul Rehman Kanju, Barrister Aqeel Malik, Malik Rashid, Kheal Das Kohistani, Bilal Azhar Kayani, Mukhtar Ahmad, Aun Chaudhry and Wajiha Qamar. The advisors are Dr Tauqeer Shah, Pervez Khattak and Muhammad Ali; the special assistants to the prime minister are Haroon Akhtar, Mubarak Zeb, Talha Burki and Huzaifa Rehman.

The selection or elevation of some of the individuals to minister-level positions has dumbfounded many a critic.

Constitutional provisions allow a government to have a cabinet that consists of a maximum of 11 percent (including the prime minister) of the total strength of the parliament. Also, a prime minister is allowed only five advisors. Shahbaz Sharif has now nearly availed that allowance though his cabinet is still not as bloated as the one that Imran Khan led. It would be interesting to see if the advisors and SAPMs of the Sharif administration work within the confines of a landmark 2020 judgment given by Justice Athar Minallah while working as chief justice of the Islamabad High Court that dealt “with the question of whether any part of the Executive authority can be exercised by the advisors and SAPMs.” Why? Because the constitution has clearly laid down in its preamble that the “state shall exercise its powers and authority through the chosen representatives of the people.”

Swelling or trimming cabinets has been a prime ministerial prerogative in many parliamentary democracies in modern times. Even in a mature polity like Britain, a debate has raged for years about what the role of a cabinet remains when the prime ministerial powers start looking like those of a president in the United States. Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, David Cameron and Boris Johnson were known for passing as primus inter pares. In Pakistan, successive cabinets have been seen rubberstamping the prime minister’s whims and wishes. A brigade of ministers, advisors and special assistants often does nothing but trot around, each of them acting as a self-proclaimed spokesperson for the prime minister. Hence the question: what compelled Shahbaz Sharif to inflate his cabinet to near capacity?

In Pakistan, successive cabinets have been seen rubberstamping the prime minister’s whims and wishes.

An argument could be made about political confidence. Remember Nawaz Sharif telling a select gathering at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry in November 2023 that Shahbaz was all set to resign, ready to dissolve the coalition government and go to the polls following Imran Khan’s ouster through a no-confidence vote in April 2022? “We were not prepared to take over power … but then we decided not to cave in to blackmail [by Imran Khan] and to move forward without any fear in the interest of Pakistan. We sacrificed our political capital in the process in order to save the country from default.” Call it Nawaz Sharif’s misplaced confidence or tacit support from Bajwa-led establishment, but it remains a fact that Shahbaz gained the trust of Rawalpindi while filling in as the skipper of a rolling vessel in rough waters. From that moment on, he knew he could be the establishment’s “long-awaited dark horse.”

Another explanation for cabinet expansion could be in terms of pre-empting a prospective challenge from fair weather friends. Pointed statements from Pakistan Peoples Party leadership on various issues may have led Shahbaz Sharif to inflate his cabinet by invoking privilege. Critical catcalls may be a part of political gamesmanship to keep the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and other opponents guessing whether the media-hyped tiff between the houses of the Sharifs and the Bhutto-Zardari is factual or fictional.

Cognisant of the fact that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government could fall if the PPP pulled a plug on the coalition, Shahbaz may be out to prove to the praetorian guard that the PML-N has not only become an inclusive party, it is also ready to accommodate yesteryears’ opponents on the top table. Inclusion of Pervez Khattak, Reza Hayat Hiraj, Aleem Khan and Khalid Magsi may be an exercise to that effect. Also, their inclusion could be aimed at defusing the perception that the PML-N is exhausted and has been reduced to the level of a provincial party.

Induction of politicians who have loitered around different parties and belong to Khanewal in southern Punjab, Jhal Magsi in Balochistan, Karachi in Sindh, Rawalpindi in northern Punjab and Mansehra in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, could be an attempt to advocate party’s pan-Pakistani credentials rather than a central Punjab outfit – a charge that the party faced after its poor showing in provinces other than the Punjab in the last elections. With Imran Khan safely locked away for now, Shahbaz knows his challenge could come from the Punjab (Maryam) or Sindh (Bilawal). Hence his attempt to fortify his castle by accommodating pro-Nawaz politicians from within the PML-N and by bringing in trusted former bureaucrats like Dr Tauqeer Shah to help improve administrative efficiency and working with Ahad Cheema to make sure the civil service machinery remained on his right side when needed next.

Political leaders are known for making tall claims about working with small cabinets when they start off. They end up wadding wardrobes as their wobbly wagons start rolling. Expecting Sharif to be any different would be unfair to a man who wants to prove himself as an apt administrator, an astute politician, a rated project manager and a philosopher king.

The writer is resident editor of The News, Islamabad