AJK cabinet: All prime ministerial aspirants made ministers

ISLAMABAD: A couple of relatives of influential figures have been inducted in the new Azad & Jammu Kashmir (AJK) cabinet. However, no family member of the first-time AJK Prime Minister, Abdul Qayyum Niazi, has been made a minister. As it turns out, Niazi did not have any close relative who was directly or indirectly elected as member of the assembly.

Meanwhile, all the prime ministerial hopefuls have been accommodated in the 18-member cabinet, which has left no room for any cribbing or any grudges to develop. AJK President Barrister Sultan Mahmood’s cousin Chaudhry Arshad Hussain, elected from Mirpur, figures in the new cabinet. The president’s son, meanwhile, is contesting the Mirpur seat vacated by Sultan Mahmood after his election as the president.

Senior Minister billionaire Sardar Tanveer Ilyas’s close relative, Ms Shahida Chughtai, has also been inducted in the cabinet. Her husband Saghir Chughtai died in a road mishap before the July 25 general elections to the Legislative Assembly. Following his death, his widow was awarded the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ticket from his constituency of Rawalakot. She is the only female in the cabinet.

The delayed cabinet formation took place three weeks after Niazi was sworn in as the prime minister. Four new ministers were elected to the Legislative Assembly on seats for refugees settled in Pakistan. Besides, Deputy Speaker Chaudhry Riaz was also returned from Pakistan.

The prime ministerial aspirants, who were made ministers, include Khawaja Farooq Ahmed, Nisar Ansar Abdali, Chaudhry Azhar Sadiq and Tanveer Ilyas. All of them had been interviewed by Prime Minister Imran Khan for the top slot. An AJK PTI leader described the cabinet as balanced and said all those who mattered have been made ministers. He said all the regions of AJK and Pakistan have been given representation.

The cabinet has ten new faces while eight of its members had been ministers in the past in different governments. A report said after the cabinet formation, all the 17 PTI lawmakers directly elected from AJK territory have been adjusted against one or the other office, including the president, prime minister, speaker and ministers.

It said due to a constitutional restriction, imposed by the 13th Amendment enacted by the previous PML-N-led assembly in 2018, only 30pc of the total membership of the house - 16 lawmakers – can be appointed as ministers.

That was why the present government had to appoint another two lawmakers from the refugee seats – Maqbool Ahmed and Muhammad Akbar – as advisers to the government. The advisers and special assistants to the government mostly had the rank and status equivalent to a minister. They were named on the basis of a subordinate legislation. However, the PML-N government had incorporated these offices in the Constitution through the 13th Amendment, restricting their number to two each but without mentioning their rank and status. The amendment is silent on their oath.

This is the first ever PTI government and cabinet in AJK. In the last elections, held in 2016, the party had fared poorly, but in the July 25 polls, which were held after five years, it showed an impressive performance leaving its two main competitors, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and PMLN, far behind.