Four-day stint: Hamza and his jumbo cabinet

Bracing imminent loss, Hamza tried to appease everyone in the coalition

LAHORE:

Merely four days after taking oath as Punjab's chief minister, Hamza Shehbaz’s ascension to the office was declared unlawful, bringing even his second stint to an abrupt end, cutting short his tenure even shorter than the first one.

During four days of his government, the PML-N scion managed to cobble together a mammoth cabinet consisting of 39 ministers.

His two short stints as the premier of the political heartland remained marred by controversies.

From securing votes from defecting PTI MPAs, that were later declared void, to being controversially declared a winner in contentious chief minister's elections despite securing seven fewer votes, Hamza's office remained under clouds through and through. However, this time around Hamza was not even allowed to take full charge of his office by the court and was allowed to function only as a "trustee" chief minister. But that didn’t deter him from assuming complete control of his office and making appointments.

Despite knowing full well that his victory faced imminent challenges and was only inches away from being declared unlawful, the PML-N leader went on to bring on board a whopping cabinet, with the latest oath to two of his ministers being administered just a day ago.

A large number of ministers were inducted within a short span of time, so much so that even the CM office struggled to keep track of things.

The CM office was repeatedly requested to clarify the confusion in the number of ministers that had taken the oath and share notifications issued for advisors, special assistants and political secretaries but each time mum was the word.

With no answer of their own, they shared a Governor House presser regarding the oath-taking ceremony in an attempt to clear the confusion of numbers.

In his previous stint which lasted for good three months, Hamza only maintained an eight-members cabinet.

However, this time, when he knew that his win was beyond controversial, Hamza brought on board the 39-minister cabinet, mainly with an intent to appease everyone in the coalition led by his father, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Nonetheless, the court’s decision took away the only gain of his cabinet members which was to call themselves the prefix "former" before they could utter the ministries they enjoyed during the short-lived government as their oath and appointment were declared to have no legal value.