Most new faces as 15-member KP cabinet takes oath

PESHAWAR: A 15-member cabinet of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa took oath here on Wednesday.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Ghulam Ali administered the oath to the ministers and advisers at the Governor’s House. Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, KP Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati, chief secretary, IG Police and head of administrative departments participated in the oath-taking ceremony.

Those who were administered oath included Arshad Ayub Khan, Shakeel Ahmad, Fazal Hakim Khan, Mohammad Adnan Qadri, Aqibullah Khan, Fazal Shakoor Khan, Mohammad Sajjad, Meena Khan, Nazir Ahmad Abbasi, Pakhtoon Yar Khan, Aftab Alam Khan Afridi, Khaleequr Rahman, Syed Qasim Ali Shah, Faisal Khan Tarakai and Mohammad Zahir Shah Toru.

The provincial cabinet was formally announced earlier in the day after approval by PTI founding chairman Imran Khan. Gandapur had held a meeting with Imran Khan in Adiala jail on Tuesday and reportedly got the approval of his cabinet members from his party leader.

Some of the PTI lawmakers who were quite sure about their selection for the cabinet were shocked when they were dropped from the final list. It prompted some of them to lodge a protest through their supporters against the party leadership, particularly Imran Khan as he was stated to have selected the cabinet members. Besides the ministers, Gandapur also appointed five advisers or special assistants, including Syed Fakhar Jehan, Muzzamil Aslam, Mohammad Ali Saif, Mashal Azam and Zahid Chanzeb.

Arshad Ayub Khan belongs to the Haripur district and had served as minister of local government in the previous PTI government. Shakeel Ahmad is a PTI leader from Jolagram area of the Malakand district. During the previous PTI government, as the revenue minister he and two other ministers, Muhammad Atif Khan from Mardan and Shahram Khan Tarakai from Swabi, were expelled from the cabinet on the directions of Imran Khan on charges of creating a forward bloc in the party and working against chief minister Mahmood Khan. Like most of the PTI leaders, Fazal Hakim Khan was previously an unknown figure. He was reportedly associated with his meat business in Mingora, Swat, and became a popular figure after he became a PTI member. This is the third time he has been elected on the PTI ticket from Mingora. Dr Amjad Khan, also a PTI lawmaker from Swat, was expected to be selected as a member of the cabinet. Besides Dr Amjad Khan, three other PTI members, Shafiullah Khan and Liaqat Khan from Dir district and former provincial minister from Bajaur tribal district Anwar Zaib Khan, were reported to have been chosen as ministers but it didn’t happen. A former health and finance minister, Taimur Saleem Jhagra was supposed to be a part of the cabinet. Though he had lost the election to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz candidate, it was expected that he would be made an adviser or special assistant. Certain senior PTI leaders reacted to the selection of some of the new faces in the cabinet. “Many of us don’t have any access to Imran Khan. What we are told is that he has stated this, we are made to believe it,” a senior PTI parliamentarian said. He said they believed that Imran Khan didn’t know most of the people who were appointed as ministers and advisers in the cabinet.

“What everyone in the party believes is a group of people in the party selected these names and presented them to Imran Khan to approve. He was not aware of many of them and their backgrounds but we are helpless,” said the party leader on condition of anonymity.