KP caretaker CM appoints four advisers

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Caretaker Chief Minister Mohammad Azam Khan on Friday appointed four advisers for the interim government.

Interestingly, Governor Ghulam Ali de-notified a caretaker provincial minister Khushdil Khan Malik for being a civil servant at a time when he had taken oath as member of the cabinet.

Khushdil Khan has challenged his removal from the cabinet, arguing that he had taken the oath on January 25, 2023 and submitted an application for retirement on January 26.

He was the only minister who was not allotted any portfolio.

Caretaker Chief Minister Azam Khan had not invited him to the first cabinet meeting on Thursday.

According to his spokesman Daniyal Khan, Khushdil Khan was supposed to be retired from civil service on February 14, 2023, but he was given an appointment for earlier retirement.

In his application submitted before the Peshawar High Court, Khushdil Khan argued that there had been civil servants in the caretaker cabinet in the past.

A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court comprising Justice Musarrat Hilali and Justice Abdul Shakoor, after hearing of the case on Thursday, postponed it till the next hearing on February 21, 2023.

Meanwhile, the caretaker chief minister appointed four advisers and allotted them portfolios.

They included Syed Jarrar Hussain Bukhari, Zafar Mahmood, Rahmat Salam Khattak and Prof Dr Abid Jameel.

Syed Jarrar Hussain Bukhari was allotted population welfare, Zafar Mahmood was assigned culture, tourism, archeology and museums.

Rahamat Salam Khattak was given the charge of elementary and secondary education while Prof Dr Abid Jameel was allotted health.

Prof Abdi Jameel is a prominent oncologist and is the pioneer of launching free oncology services in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the coalition government of Awami National Party and Pakistan People’s Party.

He established oncology department at the Hayatabad Medical Complex Peshawar and trained a number of doctors in oncology.

There was a race among some influential people, mostly doctors, for the adviser to CM position on health, but nobody

had heard Prof Abid Jameel’s name.

Meanwhile, PPP circles were taken aback when they came to know that their party leader from Islamabad, Nayyar Hussain Bukhari had adjusted his son in the KP cabinet.

The party people were shocked when two of their leaders including Najmuddin Khan and Syed Zahir Ali Shah accommodated their close relatives in the caretaker government.

It was stated to be the same reason that PPP senior leadership removed Najmuddin Khan as the party’s provisional president.