PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Friday announced changes in the cabinet by inducting a minister, two advisors and four special assistants in the cabinet and elevating Shahram Khan Tarakai to the position of senior minister and four other advisors and special assistants to the status of ministers. Announcing the cabinet reshuffle at a press conference here, Minister of Information and spokesman of the provincial government Shah Farman said that Shahram Khan Tarakai, parliamentary party leader of Awami Jumhoori Ittehad Pakistan (AJIP) and Minister for Science and Information Technology and Agriculture, was elevated to the position of the senior minister in the cabinet. Shahram Tarakai, whose party is based in Swabi, has been assigned the portfolio of health, which was earlier held by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s Shaukat Ali Yousafzai, His two portfolios, Science and Information Technology and Agriculture, would be later awarded to the newly inducted cabinet members, Shah Farman said. He also announced the expected change in the portfolio of Shaukat Ali Yousafzai, who would now be the minister of industries and commerce. For weeks now it was being speculated that the portfolio of health would be taken from him and given to someone else. According to Information Minister Shah Farman, Ikramullah Khan Gandapur, elder brother of late law minister Israrullah Khan Gandapur, would be the new minister for irrigation. Ikramullah won the provincial assembly by-election from his family seat in Dera Ismail Khan after his brother, Israrullah, was killed in a suicide attack at his hujra in Kulachi on the occasion of Eidul Azha last year. Shah Farman said two advisors and two special assistants were also elevated to the rank of minister, besides the appointment of two new advisors and four special assistants, who included the PTI’s information secretary Ishtiaq Urmar who was elected MPA from rural Peshawar. Shah Farman said Jamsheduddin Kakakhel belonging to Nowshera and Abbottabad’s Qalandar Khan Lodhi, formerly advisors to the chief minister on excise and taxation and food, respectively, were also made cabinet ministers. They would continue to hold their respective portfolios, he said. Abbottabad lawmaker Mushtaq Ghani and Peshawar’s Ziaullah Afridi, who were special assistants looking after higher education and mines and mineral development, respectively, were also elevated as cabinet ministers. They would also continue to hold the same portfolios. The information minister said that special assistant Amjad Afridi, the Kohat lawmaker who was looking after the affairs of the ministry of housing, was also given the status of advisor. He would retain the same portfolio. Two more advisors were also appointed. They are Akbar Ayub, brother of former communication and works (C&W) minister Yousaf Ayub elected recently in a by-election from Haripur, and Shakeel Khan. Akbar Ayub was given the portfolio of C&W that was held by his brother Yousaf Ayub before he was disqualified for holding a fake graduation degree. Shakeel Khan from Malakand Agency would run the agriculture department. Information Minister Shah Farman said the provincial government had appointed Ishtiaq Urmar as parliamentary secretary, Arif Yousaf, Muhibullah and Abdul Munim Khan as special assistants. They would look after the planning and development (P&D), law and parliamentary affairs and science and technology departments, respectively. Earlier, briefing the media on the decisions that the provincial cabinet took in its Thursday’s meeting, Shah Farman said the cabinet formed a committee to take up the matters pertaining to the increase in the salaries and privileges of the chief minister, provincial ministers, advisors, special assistants and parliamentary secretaries. The chief secretary would lead the committee while secretaries law and administration would be its members, he said.He added that the provincial cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, also approved amendments to various bills, including the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Injured Persons (Medical Aid) Bill.2013 and sought legislation in Auqaf, Hajj, Religious and Minority Affairs Department in pursuance of the 18th Constitutional Amendment.
