KP cabinet to take oath today after Imran’s nod

PESHAWAR: The provincial cabinet is set to take oath today (Wednesday) as Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur on Tuesday got its approval from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founding chairman Imran Khan during his meeting with him in Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.

After his meeting with Imran Khan, Ali Amin Gandapur returned to Peshawar and directed the relevant authorities to make arrangements for the oath-taking ceremony of the cabinet members at the Governor’s House. However, he didn’t share names of the proposed cabinet members with party leaders.

Interestingly, majority of the people, whose names were considered and approved by the PTI founding chairman, were not aware of their selection for the cabinet.

Sources in the PTI told The News that Ali Amin Gandapur didn’t disclose names of the cabinet members as there was pressure on him from certain quarters within the party to accommodate their nominees.

“A summary has been moved and arrangements have been made for their oath-taking ceremony on Wednesday,” a source privy to the developments about the cabinet formation told The News on the condition of anonymity.

There were several names in circulation for some time and most of them were hopeful to be considered for the provincial cabinet.

A list of the proposed cabinet members was unofficially shared with the media but senior PTI neither confirmed nor rejected them.

Some of them off the record confirmed most names in the list when it was shared with them.

Former finance and health minister Taimur Khan Jhagra is expected to lead financial team of the provincial government.

Similarly, the list included the name of Aqibullah Khan, younger brother of former speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser Khan, Faisal Khan Tarakai, younger brother of former provincial minister Shahram Khan Tarakai from Swabi, former provincial minister Shakeel Khan, Shafiullah Khan and Liaqat Ali Khan, from the Malakand and Dir districts, Meena Khan Afridi, and Qasim Ali Shah from Peshawar, Khaliqur Rahman and Mian Omar from Nowshera, Dr Amjad Ali Khan from Swat, Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani from Abbottabad, Shafi Jan from Kohat, Akbar Ayub from Haripur, Zahir Shah Toru from Mardan, and Riaz Khan from Buner district.

Anwar Zaib Khan from Bajaur and Adnan Qadri from Khyber tribal district were also stated to have been approved for the cabinet.

“Some of the cabinet members and their portfolios have been approved but I can’t mention them,” a PTI leader claimed.

Pleading anonymity, he added that each and every PTI MPA in the provincial assembly expected to be included in the cabinet, which he said, was not possible.

Meanwhile, some senior PTI leaders, who were elected Members National Assembly from KP, were of the view that since majority of the people selected for the cabinet on recommendations of influential party leaders, it would create embarrassment for the PTI founding chairman as well as Ali Amin Gandapur to deliver as most of them never held important positions.

“I thought Khan Sahib (Imran Khan) would have learnt from the past mistakes and would select people for the cabinet on merit but it didn’t happen. Almost all of cabinet members have been selected on the recommendations of influential party leaders,” one PTI MNA from Peshawar opined.