PTI minister from Hazara to go to make room for QWP

NOWSHERA: The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has decided to demote one of its two ministers from Hazara and make him an advisor to create a vacancy for accommodating the two nominees of the Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) in the provincial cabinet.
Informed sources told The News that the PTI leadership and Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had told their two ministers from Hazara, Information Minister Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani and Food Minister Qalandar Khan Lodhi, that one of them would have to make room for the two incoming QWP ministers, Sikandar Sherpao and Aneesa Zeb Tahirkheli. The last-named also belongs to Hazara.
Mushtaq Ghani and Qalandar Lodhi belong to Abbottabad district. Both had won election as independent candidates after having quit the PML-Q earlier. They joined the PTI after winning election as MPA and were made ministers.
The sources said they were told to decide the issue among themselves so that one could stay as minister and the other to become an advisor to the chief minister. As the two are unlikely to resolve the issue on their own, they could then toss the coin or leave the final decision to the PTI chairman Imran Khan.
Under the 18th Constitutional Amendment, there could be only 14 ministers and the chief minister in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in keeping with the strength of the provincial assembly. The provincial government presently has 13 ministers, plus the chief minister, and five advisors. The 14th minister
was PTI’s Ziaullah Afridi, who was sacked by the party
when he was arrested by the Ehtesab Commission on the charges of corruption and misuse of power.
Apart from the PTI, the provincial government presently has the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) with three ministers and Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan (AJIP) with one minister as coalition partners.
The provincial government would now have three senior ministers – Sikandar Sherpao, Inayatullah and AJIP’s Shahram Khan Tarakai.