PESHAWAR: Two Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) legislators took oath as ministers joining Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Pervez Khattak's cabinet on Tuesday as their party joined the PTI-led provincial coalition government after almost 20 months.

Provincial Governor Mahtab Ahmad Khan administered the oath to QWP's Sikandar Khan Sherpao and Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli.

Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli will serve as minister for mines and minerals as well as labour and manpower while Sikandar Sherpao will be the senior minister for home and tribal affairs as well as irrigation departments.

Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao also serves as QWP parliamentary leader in the provincial assembly while Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli is party's serving general secretary.

Earlier in September, QWP had entered into an agreement with the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) to share power in province, almost 20 months after the former was thrown out of the province’s ruling coalition on corruption charges.

The agreement was signed by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao himself.

The QWP had become part of the ruling coalition in the province after the PTI formed the government in the wake of the May 2013 polls.

However, the PTI ousted it from the government on November 9, 2013 by sacking its both ministers, including Sikandar Hayat Sherpao and Bakht Baider Khan, on corruption charges.

Mushtaq Ghani sacked as Information Minister

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak took the charge of information ministry from Mushtaq Ghani.

The minister who was serving as the provincial information minister since July 2014 was sacked to make room for the freshly inducted QWP ministers in the cabinet as according to 18th amendment of the constitution, Chief Minister KP can only keep 15 members in his cabinet.

Mr Ghani joined Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) after winning a seat of provincial assembly in the last general elections as an independent candidate and was first appointed adviser to chief minister and later included in the cabinet as minister for higher education.

He replaced the former KP information minister Shah Farman as minister for information back in July.

Mr Ghani was the third information minister of the incumbent provincial government as his predecessor Shah Farman too had taken over the portfolio from Shaukat Yousufzai. All three belonged to PTI.