KP CM rules out changes in cabinet

PESHAWAR: To shrug off speculations about the proposed changes to the provincial cabinet and prevent further damage to the working environment in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Friday intervened and denied reports about any reshuffle.

“There is neither any plan of changes to the cabinet nor any such strategy is under consideration to replace any minister,” the chief minister said in a statement on Friday.

Mahmood Khan said there was no truth to what he termed “rumours” about changes to the cabinet or replacing some of the ministers. It said the chief minister had expressed his confidence in the performance of the cabinet members and ruled out any plan of reshuffling or replacing some of the ministers.

Prime Minister Imran Khan during his address to a public meeting in Orakzai tribal district had asked Chief Minister Mahmood Khan to change batting order of his players (cabinet members) if he was not satisfied with their performance.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Shaukat Yousafzai was the first one to issue a statement about a reshuffle in the provincial cabinet in KP. He issued a subsequent clarification that created a crisis-like situation not only in the cabinet but also among the senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leadership. The confusion was created when one TV channel mentioned five ministers by name, including Ziaullah Bangash, Dr Hisham Inamullah Khan, Atif Khan, Shahram Khan Tarakai and Mohibullah Khan and attributed to Shaukat Yousafzai that they would be replaced.

Since there were already issues and different points of view on certain important matters, some of the cabinet members took it seriously and a “well-cooked” conspiracy against them. Without mentioning any name, the information minister stated that the ministers who could not deliver would have to go home. Also, he explained that Prime Minister Imran Khan had authorised Chief Minister Mahmood Khan to check the performance of his cabinet members and send those home who could not deliver. Shaukat Yousafzai denied sharing any names of the cabinet members with the media.

“I haven’t mentioned any name to the media. I recorded a strong protest with a media organisation for wrongly attributing their story to me. We are all colleagues in the cabinet and respect each other,” he told The News when reached for his comments. He said the journalists in Swat had asked him about any changes to the cabinet and told them that Imran Khan had empowered the chief minister to replace the ministers who were not performing well. Some of the ministers suspected that it was Shaukat Yousafzai who allegedly shared names of the ministers with a private television channel who were likely to be replaced or withdrawn from the cabinet on the basis of their performance.

It created unrest among some of the cabinet members and most of them started inquiring from their inner circles as to who could be replaced and what would be the yardstick of their performance.

According to sources in the PTI, Shaukat Yousafzai’s statement had created doubts and mistrust between the chief minister and some provincial ministers as they suspected if he was behind this move to get rid of them. After Shaukat Yousafzai’s story revelation, the spokesman for the KP government, Ajmal Wazir, intervened and issued a statement in which he denied reports related to the proposed changes to the provincial cabinet.