K-P may get more advisers, parliamentary secretaries

Faces constitutional constraints in appointing more ministers and advisers

PESHAWAR: Due to the constitutional constrains in the appointments of ministers and advisers, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government decided to adjust special advisers and parliamentary secretaries on the induction of new MPAs into the provincial legislature.

According to experts of constitutional law, following the 18th Constitutional Amendments, the strength of federal and provincial cabinet would be 11 per cent of the house.

Similarly, in K-P, after the merger of the seven tribal districts, the volume of cabinet increased with the induction of more MPAs in the house.

Currently, the provincial cabinet consists of 14 ministers along with Chief Minister and after the merger of tribal districts, the provincial government is authorised to have two more ministers in the cabinet and the advisers could be increased to five as currently three advisers are working within the cabinet. Among the three advisers, two are unelected advisers, Ajmal Wazir adviser to CM on newly merged districts, and Himayatullah Khan, an adviser to CM on energy and power, while Ziaullah Bangash is an elected MPA.

Following the boost in assembly strength the K-P government has decided to increase the number of advisers to five, while special assistants to the chief minister are also set to be increased, as two are already serving in the K-P cabinet-   the special assistant Abdul Kareem Khan, and special assistant on IT affairs Kamran Khan Bangash.

Besides the parliamentary secretaries would also be increased from 10 to 15 who would be entitled to perks and privileges from the K-P government.

PTI’s previous government under Pervez Khattak also had 10 to 15 parliamentary secretaries entitled to perks and privileges from the K-P government.

The KP government is going to reshuffles the provincial cabinet, included new faces, advisers, special assistant, and parliamentary secretaries into the provincial cabinet.

The K-P Information Minister Shaukat Yousufzai said on Tuesday that the provincial government has decided to change the portfolio of few ministers over their performances in the coming weeks and soon the names would be finalised after the yearly performance review of the ministers.

Ministers were warned first, they were even issued show-cause notices for non-deliverance in their ministries, he said talking to the media. “Names will be made public soon,” he said replying to questions by newsmen.

The performance reports of ministers have been shared with the PM office and the result will be out in weeks, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2019.