The caretaker cabinet consist of 15 ministers, including one without portfolio
JAVED KHAN
PESHAWAR
The caretaker government has allotted the portfolios to 14 ministers of the interim cabinet except Khushdil Khan Malik.
The portfolios to caretaker ministers were assigned by caretaker Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Muhammad Azam Khan.
According to a notification issued by the cabinet wing of the Administrative Department of the KP government, Syed Masood Shah has been given the portfolios of Establishment & Administration Department and Inter Provincial Coordination Department.
Abdul Haleem Qasuriya will head Agriculture, livestock, Fisheries and Cooperative Departments.
Mr Shahid Khan Khattak for Transport and Mass Transit Department, Science, Technology and Information Technology Department, Justice retired Irshad Qaiser for Law, Parliamentary Affairs and Human Rights Department. She will also head Higher Education, Achieves and Libraries Department.
Muhammad Ali Shah will supervise the Communication & Works Department while Bakht Nawaz Khan Thakot for Climate Change, Forestry, Environment and Wildlife Department, Manzoor Khan for Excise and Taxation and Labor Departments.
Adnan Jalil was given the portfolios of Industries, Commerce and Technical Education Department.
Haji Muhammad Ghufran will head Minerals Development Department, Hamid Shah for Public Health Engineer Department and Planning & Development Department.
Shahfiullah Khan was given Housing and Prisons Departments while Advocate Sawal Nazir for Local Government, Election and Rural Development Department, Mr Taj Muhammad Afridi for Relief, Rehabilitation and Settlement Department.
The total number of the provincial interim cabinet is 15. However, Khushdil Khan Malik was not given any portfolio in the above-mentioned notification.
It has been reported that Khushdil Khan has joined the interim cabinet without fluffing eligibility criteria for caretaker minister.
Sources said that the caretaker minister was a federal government employee at the time of joining the cabinet.
However, Khushdil Khan in a statement has clarified that the authorities have scrutinized all his required documents and other credentials before the announcement of his appointment as caretaker minister for KP interim cabinet.
Except, Taj Muhammad Afridi and Muhammad Ali Shah all the aforementioned ministers were given more than one departments.
The 15-member caretaker provincial cabinet of KP administered the oath on January 26 by Governor Haji Ghulam Ali.
It may be mentioned here that each political party of the province proposed different names for the interim cabinet.
The caretaker cabinet members are close associates of JUI-F, ANP, PML-N, PPP, QWP and BAP.
However, the names recommended by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were not adjusted in the incumbent setup, causing uproar among its leaders.
Taimur Saleem Jhagra, former finance and health minister, has termed the interim setup as Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) cabinet.
PTI senior leaders while criticizing the cabinet maintained that names sent by PTI were not cleared for the caretaker ministries.
