- Collective Cabinet responsibility set at naught
It would seem that federal Religious Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri has not heard of collective Cabinet responsibility, or the Foreign Office has not. Mr Qadri told the audience of a ceremony to distribute aid from the International Islamic Relief Organization among the serving people of Azad Kashmir that Pakistan would side with Saudi Arabia in the fast-changing situation in the Middle East because the kingdom had always supported the country in the face of every difficult situation. Saudi Ambassador Nawaf Al-Maliki was also present. Was he supposed to report back to his government this exuberant commitment, of the statement of the Foreign Office, as the stance of the Pakistan government? The Foreign Office had been careful not to take any sides in its statement on the assassination of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani, calling for all to adhere to the UN Charter. It certainly did not extend the kind of carte blanche that Mr Qadri did. Presumably, that statement represented Pakistan’s official collective position.
Mr Qadri should realise that Cabinet members are supposed to present a united front, and express the same view. If a Cabinet member feels that he cannot support a particular view, let alone oppose it, he is free to resign. Mr Qadri’s view is not without support, and he is free to win over others to his view, but then he must not remain in the Cabinet. He has done this before, meeting the Chinese Ambassador some months back to argue for better treatment of Uighurs, even though the Foreign Office termed their treatment an internal Chinese affair.
Creating confusion among foreign powers is not done. If Mr Qadri does not like the government’s policy, he should not be part of the government. This applies even to relative part-timers like whips, let alone to full-fledged members of the Cabinet. Letting Mr Qadri continue in the Cabinet after the incident with the Chinese ambassador was the first mistake. It is to be hoped that Mr Qadri is not allowed to continue his solo flight.
