- KP government issues notification on cabinet portfolios.
- New ministers to head key provincial departments.
- Advisers, special assistants also allocated their roles.
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Saturday assigned portfolios to the newly appointed 13 cabinet members.
The cabinet members took the oath a day earlier at a ceremony held at the Governor House in the provincial capital of Peshawar.
KP Chief Minister KP Sohail Afridi — who replaced Ali Amin Gandapur as the chief executive last month — had announced his cabinet members after jailed PTI founder Imran Khan directed him to go ahead with cabinet formation.
Since his election as CM, Afridi has been denied permission four times to meet the PTI founder in Adiala Jail, despite the court’s directives. CM Afridi had maintained that he wanted to meet the party founder to seek his guidance for the cabinet formation.
According to the official notification, Meena Khan Afridi has been appointed as the provincial Minister for Local Government, Elections, and Rural Development. Arshad Ayub Khan will serve as the Minister for Elementary and Secondary Education.
Fazal Shakoor has been given the Public Health Engineering Department, while Dr Amjad has been appointed Minister for Housing. Aftab Alam Afridi will serve as the Minister for Law, Parliamentary Affairs, and Human Rights.
Syed Fakhar Jehan has been assigned the portfolio of Excise, Taxation, and Narcotics Control, whereas Riaz Khan will head the Irrigation Department. Khaleequr Rehman has been appointed Minister for Health, and Aqibullah Khan will take charge of Relief, Rehabilitation, and Settlement.
Faisal Khan Tarkai has been named Minister for Labour. Muzzammil Aslam has been appointed Adviser on Finance, while Taj Muhammad Tarand will serve as Adviser on Sports and Youth Affairs. Shafiullah Jan has been appointed Special Assistant to the Chief Minister on Information.
It is pertinent to mention that the new KP cabinet is considerably smaller compared to Gandapur’s cabinet, which once had 33 members and was later reduced following a reshuffle.
The 13-member cabinet was contrary to the directions of party founder Imran Khan, who had advised limiting the cabinet to five to eight members, The News reported on Saturday, citing sources.
According to party sources, Imran had stressed that the cabinet should remain single-digit and compact, but CM Afridi went ahead with a larger formation.
Imran, the former prime minister, had also specifically advised against including certain figures, Aqibullah Khan (brother of Asad Qaiser), Faisal Tarakai (brother of Shahram Tarakai), and former provincial minister Shakeel Khan — yet they were added to the final list.
A senior PTI leader told The News that Imran had further recommended inclusion of senior members who had been previously overlooked, but those suggestions too were not implemented.
