Shaukat Yousafzai to take oath as KP minister today

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker Shaukat Ali Yousafzai would take oath as a provincial minister today.

Shaukat Ali Yousafzai, elected MPA from his native Shangla district, told The News that he had been appointed as the minister of information and excise and taxation.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Shah Farman would administer him oath as member of the cabinet at a ceremony Wednesday afternoon at the Governor House in Peshawar.

Shaukat Ali Yousafzai, who is a former journalist, served as information and health minister during PTI’s earlier term in power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. However, he was later removed from the cabinet due to ‘poor performance’.

He was elected MPA from Peshawar city in the 2013 general election and had lost from Shangla. In the July 2018 polls, he won the provincial assembly seat, PK-23 Shangla defeating PML-N’s Mohammad Rishad Khan.

However, the Election Commission of Pakistan declared the result invalid as less than 10 percent women had cast their votes in the election. Re-polling was held between the same candidates and this time Shaukat Yousafzai won by a big margin of 20,000 votes due to support from local leaders of ANP, PPP, etc.