LAHORE, Jan 29: Punjab chief minister’s special assistant Raja Muhammad Basharat was sworn in as provincial minister for local government and law and parliamentary affairs here on Wednesday evening.

Governor Khalid Maqbool administered the oath to Raja Basharat at a special ceremony held at the Governor’s House. Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, members of his cabinet, Punjab Assembly Speaker Muhammad Afzal Sahi, Deputy Speaker Sardar Shaukat Husain Mazari and senior government officers attended the ceremony.

With the induction of Raja Basharat, the number of the provincial cabinet has increased to 26.

After the oath of Raja Basharat, the chief minister also announced induction of former Punjab law minister Rana Ejaz Ahmad Khan as his Special Assistant for Law and Human Rights.

The new minister had lost the general election in October last year but has returned to the assembly in the byelection held on Jan 15.

He was the Punjab law and information minister during the chief ministership of Mian Shahbaz Sharif and remained Rawalpindi Zila Council chairman for eight years. He is considered a close aide of Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.

Meanwhile, talking to reporters Raja Basharat said as the law minister he would take the opposition along. He said the chief minister had already set a good tradition by contacting the opposition during Wednesday’s session of the Punjab Assembly, assuring to consider their suggestions regarding the legislation and improvement in the law and order situation.

He said the provincial government would make laws in the assembly and not through ordinances.

Raja Basharat said there was no friction between the assembly members and the local governments. “We would take them along and create a balance between their functions,” he said.

He said the local governments would use their own development funds without any interference by the government which would separately run its Tameer-i-Punjab Programme through the MPAs.

Raja Basharat said the government would improve the local government system without amending the law governing their functioning. “Impro-vements can be made in the system while remaining within the existing law,” he said. He dispelled the impression that the local government system would be wrapped up and said the chief minister had already reiterated to make it a success.