Pakistan Cabinet resigns

PAKISTAN: Pakistan's Ministers on Wednesday submitted their resignations to the prime minister, who intends to appoint a smaller Cabinet in order to reduce government spending at a time of economic crisis.

"Today's meeting is going to be the last meeting of the present cabinet," Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told more than 50 ministers, praising their record on the economy, constitutional reform and response to major floods.

A senior government official told AFP that the ministers had tendered their resignations to Gilani during the meeting. "Now the prime minister will forward these resignations to the president for acceptance," the official told AFP, on condition of anonymity.

"The cabinet usually stands dissolved after the President accepts the resignations forwarded to him by the prime minister," he added.

The main ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) last week authorised Gilani to dissolve the cabinet after powerful opposition parties demanded a smaller line-up as part of retrenchment efforts to tackle Pakistan's economic woes. A reduction in the size of the cabinet is a legal requirement of the 18th amendment to the constitution, which stipulates it should be no larger than 11 percent of parliament.

"The total size of the parliament is 442 members and accordingly the size of the Cabinet should be 49," said PPP spokeswoman Fauzia Wahab. AFP