Ruling PTI in KP decides to do away with senior minister in cabinet

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has decided in principle not to name anyone as senior minister in the cabinet again due to the bitter experiences faced by it during its rule in the province.

PTI leaders aware of the development told The News that the idea to have someone as senior minister was aimed at acknowledging the seniority and importance of the cabinet member.

However, they said the senior ministers often acted as if they were not answerable to the chief minister and were almost equal in stature to him. They opined that this created another centre of power rivaling that of the chief minister.

The last cabinet member to be named senior minister was the PTI leader from Mardan district, Mohammad Atif Khan, who held the portfolio of sports, culture, tourism and youth affairs.

As he couldn’t become the chief minister due to a host of reasons after reportedly being tipped for the job by Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is also the party chairman, he was compensated by naming him the senior minister in the cabinet and giving him the portfolio of his choice as he wanted to work for promotion of tourism.

His rift with Chief Minister Mahmood Khan cost him his job when the prime minister sacked him on January 26 along with his cousin Shahram Khan Tarakai, the minister of health belonging to Swabi, and Shakeel Ahmad, the revenue and excise minister hailing from Malakand district. They were accused of indiscipline and summarily removed from the cabinet despite the widely held belief that Atif Khan was close to Imran Khan.

Though Atif Khan and Shahram Tarakai were later invited by the prime minister for a meeting in Islamabad apparently to mend fences, no decision has yet been taken to take them back in the cabinet. Sources in the PTI said it now depended on Chief Minister Mahmood Khan whether he wanted to re-induct them in his cabinet as the prime minister had reposed full trust in him.

The sources said Atif Khan and Shahram Tarakai are unlikely to be taken back until June or July. Also, the sources added that Atif Khan won’t be named senior minister if taken back. Their portfolios may also be changed.

In the previous PTI-led coalition government, there were as many as three senior ministers – Qaumi Watan Party (QWP)’s Sikandar Hayat Sherpao, Jamaat-i-Islami’s Inayatullah Khan and Awami Jamhoor Ittehad Pakistan (AJIP)’s Shahram Tarakai. The AJIP was later merged in the PTI.

The senior ministers in the first PTI government from 2013-2018 were parliamentary leaders of the coalition parties. They were given the ceremonial office of senior minister to acknowledge their seniority as head of the three parliamentary parties that were in the ruling coalition with the PTI.

In the coalition government of Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) that held power from 2008-2013, ANP’s Bashir Ahmad Bilour and PPP’s Rahimdad Khan were named senior ministers.

When the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) ruled the province from 2002-2008, Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani belonged to the JUI-F while Jamaat-i-Islami’s Sirajul Haq was senior minister. The JUI-F and Jamaat-i-Islami were the biggest in terms of representation in the provincial assembly of the six religious-political parties that had formed the MMA to contest and win the 2002 general election in the province.