New Delhi
11 February 2011
By SHAFQAT ALI in Islamabad and RAMESH RAMACHANDRAN in New Delhi
SMK was lucky to have survived the Cabinet reshuffle, but SMQ wasn't.
On the day when external affairs minister SM Krishna addressed the United Nations
Security Council in New York came the news of Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood
Qureshi's 'sacking'.
While Mr Krishna continues to hold on to the coveted portfolio in spite of the rumours of
his imminent departure around the time Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reshuffled his
Cabinet in January, Mr Qureshi found himself omitted from the new team of ministers
that was sworn in Friday evening in Islamabad.
Mr Qureshi is understood to have he refused to take oath after learning that he was likely
to get the portfolios of water and power.
Pakistani official sources said Mr Qureshi will "most likely" be the foreign minister
again.
"He was not inducted in the first phase but is likely to keep that portfolio and named
Foreign Minister in the second phase," a senior Pakistan government official close to
President Asif Ali Zardari told this newspaper.
Although he might still retain the portfolio if he is administered the oath in the second
phase of ministerial swearing-ins, few in India would miss him after his joint press
conference with Mr Krishna in Islamabad in July 2010, which will be known more for his
conduct which was unbecoming of a minister than anything else.
At that press conference Mr Qureshi equated home secretary GK Pillai's comments to
those of Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed. He also said that Mr Krishna often got calls
from India during the bilateral talks and left the room for consultations.
The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan are expected to meet in New Delhi later this
year to review the progress of soon-to-be-resumed structured, bilateral peace talks.
Consequently, the Indian side will have to wait a few days to see who would be visiting
New Delhi as Pakistan foreign minister.
Mr Qureshi (54) came to head the Pakistan foreign ministry in the PPP government in
March 2008. Mr Krishna (78) became the external affairs minister in May 2009.
President Zardari administered the oath to 22 ministers in line with the Pakistan Peoples
Party's (PPP's) decision to reduce the size of the Council of Ministers as per the
demands of the main opposition PML-N party and Western donors, including the
International Monetary Fund, who asked for a cut in government spending. Many of the
ministers are likely to hold more than one portfolio as part of the fiscal austerity
measures. Also, the size of the cabinet had to be reduced in keeping with the provisions
of a key constitutional reforms package adopted by the parliament last year. Under the
18th constitutional amendment, the size of the cabinet should be no more than 11 per
cent of the total strength of parliament.
Prominent members of the previous federal cabinet, who were not inducted today, are
Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Raja Parvez Ashraf and Nazar
Mohammad Gondal.
The new, reconstituted cabinet includes 18 old and four new ministers. It also features
one minister of state, Ms Hina Rabbani Khar. For now, Ms Khar will look after the foreign
ministry. She was minister of state of finance in the dissolved cabinet. The 34-year-old
has been participating in discussions with the World Bank and the IMF for financial
reforms in Pakistan and is familiar with Western leaders.
The ministers who were sworn in are: Mian Changez Jamali, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan,
Syed Khurshid Shah, Sardar Alhaj Muhammad Umar Goreja, Hina Rabbani Khar, Mir
Israrullah Zehri, Arbab Alamgir Khan, Mian Raza Rabbani, Syed Naveed Qamar, Rehman
Malik, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Shahbaz Bhatti, Engineer Shaukatullah, Samina Khalid
Ghurki, Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Haji Khuda Baksh Rajar, Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo,
Makhdoom Shahabuddin, Babar Awan, Haji Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, Chaudhry Ahmed
Mukhtar and Mir Hazar Khan Bajrani.
The portfolios of the new ministers will be announced later but most of the ministers
sworn in today are likely to retain the ministries they were heading.
The cabinet ministers had tendered their resignations to Prime Minister Yusuf Raza
Gilani Wednesday, after the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the PPP had
authorised Mr Gilani to appoint a leaner cabinet.
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