PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government completed two and a half years in power in the province on Sunday after facing many ups and downs. During this period, the portfolios of more than half of its ministers and advisors were changed while the office of the deputy speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly has been lying vacant for 14 months. The provincial departments and ministries that saw different heads included Finance, Health, Agriculture, Irrigation, Mines and Minerals, Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Sports and Culture, Forest and Environment, Social Welfare and Women Development, and Information and Higher Education. The office of the deputy speaker became vacant after Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi resigned and took oath as Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs in November 2014.The post of Minister of Law and Parliamentary Affairs had fallen vacant after the assassination of Sardar Israrullah Khan Gandapur in a suicide blast in October 2013. The portfolio of finance was awarded to Muzaffar Syed when Senior Minister Sirajul Haq gave up his cabinet berth after being elected as the head of Jamaat-i-Islami.The rest of the portfolios were changed either due to alleged corruption and inefficiency of the ministers or readjustment with ruling partners in the provincial cabinet. According to the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet will have 15 ministers including the chief minister but the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government inducted five advisors and five special assistants in the cabinet to appease the lawmakers and . Some of the MPAs were appointed as parliamentary secretaries. The incumbent cabinet has three senior ministers including Inayatullah Khan of Jamaat-i-Islami, Sikandar Sherpao of Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) and Shahram Tarakai of the erstwhile Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan, which was recently merged into the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Shaukat Yusufzai was once holding two important portfolios of Information and Health. Later the Information Ministry was given to Shah Farman and then Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, who is now special assistant to the chief minister. Shaukat Yusufzai and Advisor to Chief Minister Yasin Khalil were sacked for ‘inefficiency’ and the Health Ministry was handed over to Shahram Tarakai, who was also running the affairs of the Ministry of Agriculture and Information Technology. Later, Ikramullah Gandapur was tasked with running the Agriculture Ministry. He is the brother of late Israrullah Gandapur. Two provincial ministers belonging to the Qaumi Watan Party Bakht Baidar Khan and Ibrar Hussain were removed from the cabinet on the charges of corruption that led to the resignation of Senior Minister Sikandar Hayat Sherpao and the two coalition partners parted ways. Bakht Baidar Khan and Ibrar Hussain were holding the portfolios of Labour and Industries and Forests and Environment respectively.An important cabinet member Ziaullah Afridi was arrested by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission on graft charges, which led to his removal as Minister of Mines and Minerals. Amjad Afridi, another Advisor to Chief Minister who was heading the Sports and Culture departments was removed from the cabinet on the recommendation of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf special committee for having committed some ‘irregularities’.Aneesa Zeb Tahirkheli of Qaumi Watan Party is now heading the Mines and Mineral department while irrigation and home department has been given to Sikandar Sherpao. Meanwhile, provincial minister Mehmood Khan and two advisors including Dr Mehr Taj Roghani have yet to be given any portfolios after the Qaumi Watan Party rejoined in the provincial government and their portfolios were given to the QWP ministers.
