With the induction of 12 more ministers expected to take oath today, the provincial cabinet will be completed with 14 members. PHOTO: AFP
PESHAWAR:
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) coalition government is all set to reveal the much awaited provincial cabinet on Thursday (today).
Two senior ministers – Sikandar Sherpao of the Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) and Sirajul Haq of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) – have already taken oath on May 31. The same day, Pervez Khattak took oath at the Governor House as the 26th Chief Minister (CM) of K-P.
With the induction of 12 more ministers expected to take oath today, the provincial cabinet will be completed with 14 members.
The oath-taking of the two ministers set in motion the formation of the cabinet. However, the subsequent consultation process along with the long drawn out decision on the allocation of the education ministry – which both PTI and JI desired – resulted in the coalition partners taking 13 days to finalise cabinet members.
“According to the formula for dividing portfolios between the coalition partners, three ministries each will be given to QWP and JI, one will be given to Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan (AJIP) while the PTI will retain seven,” said an official privy to the negotiations.
“CM Khattak has already made up his mind to induct certain MPAs as his advisors,” he said, adding these advisors will have ministerial powers to look after the affairs of certain departments.
“Keeping this in view, PTI will have the strength of seven ministers. But at the same time, it would also enjoy considerable political influence because of the powers rested with the CM’s advisors.”
PTI’s coalition partners are said to get some attractive ministerial offices as well. From the JI, the party’s central vice chief Sirajul Haq will be the Minister for Finance; Inayatullah Khan will be the Minister for Local Government, while Habibur Rahman will serve as the Minister for Ushar, Zakat, Social Welfare and Women Development.
From the QWP, provincial chief Sikandar Hayat Sherpao will be the Minister for Irrigation and Public Health Engineering, Bakht Baidar Khan would be awarded the industries, labour, mineral development and technical education ministry, while Ibrar Tanoli would serve as the Minister for Environment. AJIP’s Shehram Khan will be the Minister for Agriculture.
The names of PTI ministers revealed as yet include Shaukat Ali Yousafzai as Minister for Information, Culture and Sports, and Sardar Israrullah Khan Gandapur as Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs.
While many PTI MPAs are trying to secure a ministry, it remains unclear who will be awarded which portfolio.
Yousaf Ayub Khan is likely to be made education minister because of his previous experience of serving in the same capacity from 1997-1999, while Sardar Idrees, Yaseen Khalil, Shah Farman, Mohammad Atif Khan, Dr Amjad, Fazal Hakim, Dr Meher Taj Roghani, Samiullah Alizai, Amjad Afridi and Malik Qasim are also awaiting induction to the cabinet as ministers or advisors to the CM.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 13th, 2013.
COMMENTS (1)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
jamat e islami , the very jamat who opposed jinnah and the creationofpakistan has a minister incharge of, among other things, women development. how can an obscurantist religious party cter to women,s development when its very view of islam is a distorted one and anti women. god hlp pti. god help women of KPK . god help pakistan and protect it from those who were enemies of pakistan.