THE reconstitution of the Council of Common Interests may be a prime ministerial prerogative, but the sudden change in the membership of the CCI and the decision to issue the notification from the Prime Minister’s Office instead of the presidency are unusual and troubling. The eight-member council, headed by the prime minister and including the chief ministers of the four provinces, is constitutionally mandated to “formulate and regulate policies in relation to matters in Part II of the Federal Legislative List”. The CCI list of subjects is wide and significant, and includes: the census; electricity; mineral, oil and natural gas; electricity; major ports; federal regulatory authorities; supervision and management of public debt; national planning and national economic coordination. Suffice it to say the CCI was largely ignored during former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s tenure and that the arrival of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had created an expectation that a more efficient and inclusive style of management would be introduced.

Yet, the change in the composition of the CCI suggests that the PML-N is more interested in politics and centralising power than genuinely addressing inter-provincial matters ahead of the next general election. By eliminating two federal ministers on the CCI from KP and Balochistan and replacing them with ministers from Punjab, the CCI now has four members from Punjab and six belonging to the PML-N. To be sure, replacing the federal ministers for overseas Pakistanis and religious affairs with the federal ministers for industries and finance may be a sensible change from the perspective of the CCI’s responsibilities. But Mr Abbasi ought to have paid attention to the resultant arithmetic — four members from Punjab in the CCI at a time when a Punjab-dominated party is in power at the centre will send an unsettling message to the numerically smaller provinces.

The potential for inter-provincial discord is also significant because of the major issues that the CCI is set to address — approval of the national census results; a national water policy; allocation of gas to domestic consumers. With a general election scheduled for next year, major CCI decisions along provincial or politically partisan lines could cause fresh strains among the constituent units of the federation. An ongoing dispute between the three numerically smaller provinces, Sindh, KP and Balochistan on one side and Punjab and the PML-N federal government on the other, over CCI approval of LNG imports, which the PML-N is relying on heavily to address the energy crisis in the country, is an example of the problems that partisan decision-making can create. If Prime Minister Abbasi and the PML-N do not have ulterior motives in revamping the CCI, there was no need to do so in an abrupt, surreptitious manner. The CCI does need to be made more active and effective, but Mr Abbasi’s approach may not be the right way ahead.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2017