KP CM makes changes in cabinet

PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Monday again made changes to the provincial cabinet and appointed two ministers and promoted his three special assistants to advisers.

Kamran Bangash was previously working as special assistant to the chief minister on Higher Education and held an additional charge of the portfolio of Information and Public Relations of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government. He has now been promoted as provincial minister. The chief minister also appointed Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) from Haripur district Arshad Ayub as provincial minister.

The government has not assigned portfolios to the newly appointed ministers but sources told The News Kamran Bangash was likely to get the lucrative portfolio of Local Government, Elections and Rural Development. Kamran Bangash in the past had held the Local Government Department as special assistant to the chief minister. He was then assigned Higher Education, Information and Public Relations, which he successfully handled and won the approval of the chief minister.

If he is assigned the Local Government Department, the biggest challenge for him would be holding the Local Government elections in a free, fair and transparent environment. Arshad Ayub is expected to get the portfolio of Higher Education Department.

However, senior leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) didn’t agree to reports that Kamran Bangash would be given the Local Government portfolio. “In the notification, the chief minister had de-notified his previous responsibilities after promoting him as provincial minister, but he has been advised to continue with the two portfolios. I don’t believe he can get the local government portfolio,” a senior PTI leader in Peshawar told The News.

Arshad Ayub is the elder brother of Akbar Ayub. Akbar Ayub was an influential member of the provincial cabinet and was considered close to the chief minister until July 2021 when he was asked to resign due to reasons best known to him and the chief minister.

He was first named minster or Elementary and Secondary Education and then his portfolio was changed but given a more attractive responsibility of the Local Government Department that he held until his unceremonious removal from the cabinet. Some PTI leaders had, however, had told The News at that time that his elder brother Arshad Ayub would be accommodated in the cabinet in the next phase.

Before sacking Akbar Ayub, the chief minister had sought resignation from two cabinet members, including Minister for Social Welfare Dr Hisham Inamullah Khan and Adviser to Chief Minister on Revenue Qalandar Khan Lodhi.

According to insiders of the PTI, some people close to Prime Minister Imran Khan used to feed him wrong information about certain people of the KP government. “There are major groups in the party and some of them are close to the prime minister. They misguide him about the cabinet members and PTI lawmakers which is causing damage to the KP government and party in many places,” one senior PTI leader told The News on condition of anonymity.

He claimed some of the cabinet members including Arshad Ayub and Dr Hisham Inamullah fell prey to conspiracies of such elements in the party. First their portfolios were taken back and then they were expelled from the cabinet.

Meanwhile, the chief minister promoted Riaz Khan, Mohammad Arif Ahmadzai and Mohammad Zahoor Khan from special assistants to his advisers. They will continue to hold portfolios assigned to them earlier.