11-member K-P cabinet sworn in

PESHAWAR: As many as 11 nominated ministers of the provincial cabinet took the oath of their office at the Governor House in Peshawar on Wednesday.

However, the government later clarified that the twelfth minister was erroneously named.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) representative from Peshawar Kamran Bangash, who had been nominated as the minister of information technology, was conspicuous by his absence from the oath-taking ceremony.

On Sunday, the PTI had released a list of 15 names those who would comprise the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) cabinet. This included 12 ministers and three advisors and special assistants. Bangash was included as a minister.



However, a statement issued by the provincial information department later clarified that Bangash was to be a special assistant to the chief minister on information technology instead of being a full-fledged minister. The statement quoted Bangash as stating that the earlier notice which named him as a minister in the cabinet was incorrect.

The party’s nominations for cabinet members have been contentious since even before the final list of names were released last weekend.

Earlier, there were murmurs that some lawmakers were not excited about resuming their roles in ministries which they had overseen for the past five years and wanted to tackle fresh challenges.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2018.