Maryam’s cabinet gets two more ministers

LAHORE: Two senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) figures, former Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan and former Local Government Minister Mansha Ullah Butt, were inducted into Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s cabinet as provincial ministers on Monday.

Governor Punjab Sardar Saleem Haider Khan administered the oath to the new ministers at a ceremony held at the Governor House. The event was attended by Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Ahmad Khan, Deputy Speaker Zaheer Iqbal Chanar, Senior Provincial Minister MarriyumAurangzeb, Chief Secretary Zahid Akhtar Zaman, members of the provincial cabinet and other dignitaries. The chief secretary read out the appointment notification.

Rana Iqbal Khan, from Kasur, is the son of the late political stalwart Rana Phool Muhammad. His relative, Rana Sikandar Hayat Khan, already serves in the cabinet as the provincial minister for education.

Mansha Ullah Butt, a veteran leader from Sialkot, has previously held ministerial positions in the cabinets of Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz. Another leader from Sialkot, Zeeshan Rafique, is also a provincial minister for local government.

With these inductions, cities like Kasur and Sialkot now have two ministers each in the Punjab cabinet. Similarly, two ministers—Bilal Akbar Khan and Sardar Ramesh Singh Arora—had already been inducted from Narowal.

Both Rana Iqbal and Mansha Ullah Butt are widely respected within the PMLN for their loyalty, having stood with the party during its troubled times.

Despite the new appointments, south Punjab remains significantly underrepresented in the provincial cabinet, which continues to be dominated by ministers from Lahore, Lahore Division and Central Punjab. Out of more than 20 cabinet members, only two—Kazim Pirzada (Bahawalpur) and Sher Ali Gorchani (Rajanpur)—belong to south Punjab.

Lahore’s strong presence is further solidified with several key ministers, including Bilal Yasin, Khawaja Salman Rafique, Faisal Ayub Khokhar, Sohail Shaukat Butt and Khawaja Imran Nazir. Notably, both Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also hail from Lahore.