July 21, 2002	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 10,1423

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MUZAFFARABAD, July 20: AJK Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan is likely to expand his cabinet early next month by inducting a woman minister for which he has obtained approval from the quarters concerned, Dawn learnt from reliable sources here on Saturday.

Of the two strong candidates for the slot, the contestant who has reportedly come up successful is Noreen Arif, one of the three Muslim Conference MLAs elected against five special seats for women in the AJK assembly.

The remaining two special seats for women were clinched by the People’s Party. The ruling party has also another woman MLA, Shamim Akhtar, in its ranks, but she was elected in direct elections from a Kashmiri refugees’ constituency in Punjab.

Sources said the induction of the woman minister in the AJK cabinet would have been made long ago by the premier, but the matter got delayed due to “a disagreement between him and the quarters that matter on the selection of the lady.”

Some top military officials, according to sources, have been strongly favouring Shireen Waheed, whose husband Abdul Waheed Khan, is also a ruling party legislator. However, the prime minister himself has been in favour of Ms Arif from the very beginning, sources say.

Ms Arif is also mother-in-law of the prime minister’s youngest daughter and spouse of secretary education Raja Mohammad Arif Khan. Considered as an outspoken lady, she had also been MLA in previous two assemblies.

Recently, the prime minister, sources said, had told a top military official that “he had no objection to the induction of Ms Waheed, but he feared she could repeat the history by joining the People’s Party along with the flag.”

He had referred to change of loyalties by Ms Waheed in March 1990, barely two months ahead of the AJK general elections, while she was a minister in the Muslim Conference government, headed by Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan.

Ms Waheed, who became MLA twice in the past, has also the honour of being the first woman minister of Azad Kashmir from 1988 to 1990.

Upon the premier’s sarcastic remarks, the military official could not give any answer, which amounted to his tacit approval to the PM’s choice, sources said, adding, it was most likely that Ms Arif would be inducted in the cabinet early next month.

It was, however, also learnt that some military officials were still giving assurances to Ms Waheed “that no one else would be given her place in the cabinet.” It may be noted here that the last woman minister in AJK was Nahid Tariq who held the office for over two years in Sardar Qayyum led government from 1991-96. She is also sitting MC MLA.