K-P governor removes confusion about cabinet

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Governor Haji Ghulam Ali has formally announced the dissolution of the provincial caretaker cabinet after the death of the caretaker chief minister Azam Khan due to the claims by some caretaker ministers that they still hold their portfolios despite the sad demise of the chief minister.

Official sources told The Express Tribune that, with the death of the caretaker chief minister, the caretaker cabinet had dissolved automatically but that some of the ministers had insisted on holding their offices and had even contacted the governor in this regard.

“The governor contacted his legal team who informed him that the cabinet had technically been dissolved and that he should formally announce it to remove any confusion in this regard,” said an official, adding that, in the formal notification, it had been made clear that all the advisors and ministers were no longer part of the cabinet.

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 “Some of the caretaker ministers were of the opinion that they still held their portfolios because they had neither resigned nor been removed from their posts. The governor then called a meeting of his legal advisors who informed him about the legal standing of the caretaker government,” said the official. On the other hand, former chief minister Mahmood Khan and Akram Khan Durrani now have the distinction of nominating caretaker chief ministers two and three times respectively.

This year in January, after the dissolution of the Assembly, Mahmood Khan had met opposition leader Akram Khan Durrani and both of them had agreed on the name of former bureaucrat Muhammad Azam Khan for the position of caretaker chief minister. After his untimely and sad demise, both the leaders have again met and nominated another caretaker chief minister. It may be recalled that Akram Khan Durrani had also met former chief minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti in 2013 to nominate retired chief justice Tariq Pervaiz for caretaker chief minister.

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Caretaker Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mohammad Azam Khan suddenly passed away on Saturday. The retired bureaucrat had been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Rehman Medical Institute (RMI) in Peshawar last night reportedly complaining of chest pain. He had been a heart patient and had been brought to the hospital in critical condition, it was revealed.

Dr Gulzar, the Director of Operations at RMI, said that the minister had been suffering from diarrhoea and nausea for the past four days.  “His CT scan revealed a hernia and, before we could decide on an operation, he suffered a stroke at 9 pm.” Azam Khan had served as finance minister and federal secretary at the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources and as the federal secretary of religious affairs. The minister had studied law at the University of Peshawar and had attended Lincoln’s Inn, London in pursuit of his Bar-at-Law degree.