Red zone files: Curious case of the cabinet.

Byline: Fahd Husain

Ask Ghulam Sarwar Khan. He is the federal aviation minister. He is the winner of two National Assembly seats from Taxila. Yes two. He gave the other one to his son in a by-election. He made his nephew win the provincial assembly seat. The other MPA seat was also won by a PTI nominee from his group.

Sarwar Khan is the nemesis of the real heavyweight of the area who answers to the name Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. He should feel vindicated. He has prevailed over his nemesis and commands magnificent political power in his area. And he travels in a flagged car. Life is good.

So why is he so miffed?

That's what a lot of people wondered when they saw him telling TV host Adil Shahzeb on his show that he did not know where many of the unelected members of the cabinet had come from and who they were. It was a rant. It was directed at his colleagues in the federal cabinet. Sarwar did not take names but he knew he was targeting people who had been placed in the cabinet by their boss, who also happens to be Sarwar Khan's boss. And yet Sarwar Khan unsheathed his sword in public and took a mighty swing.

So what gives?

Welcome to the crazy, snarky and complicated world inside the Red Zone where nothing is what it seems till you can squeeze the right hand and whisper in the right ear. The inhabitants of this world are well aware that the elected vs unelected heartburn inside the cabinet has been simmering for some time now. Sarwar Khan just took it public.

Numbers tell their own story. The total strength of the cabinet is 51 (including the prime minister). The breakup is as follows: federal ministers (27), ministers of state (4), advisers (5), and special assistants to the prime minister (14). The first two categories consist of elected people (27+4=31), while the last two categories comprise unelected people (5+14=19). In other words, in a cabinet of 51 people, 37 per cent are unelected.

But sometimes numbers do not tell the entire story. If you go over the list (available on the National Assembly of Pakistan website) you can mark those people who 'really matter' in the cabinet today. The definition of the term 'really matter' is subjective as is the list of people marked as such. But it is a useful exercise to get a feel of this debate that Sarwar Khan may have unwittingly spurred. My scanning of the list produces this subjective numeric result:

Of the 31 elected people in the federal cabinet, there are 12 who really matter. Of the 19...