MUZAFFARABAD: An Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) minister on Wednesday tried to play down the absence of senior minister Sardar Tanvir Ilyas from the maiden session of the cabinet due to alleged discomposure over allotment of portfolios, saying that the senior minister had followed party decisions in the past and would maintain this trait in future as well.

Minister for Information, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Sardar Faheem Akhtar Rabbani also denied reports doing the rounds on social media that Prime Minister Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi had detailed three cabinet members, he being one of them, to get in touch with Mr Ilyas for a first-hand information about his concerns.

“There is no such committee because there is no dispute,” claimed the minister.

“The portfolios given to me may not be of my choice but since it’s party decisions I have resigned myself to it... Similarly Sardar Tanvir Ilyas will also follow party decisions exactly the way he has done in the past,” he said.

Mr Ilyas was among the PM hopefuls along with Barrister Sultan Mahmood, but PTI chairman Imran Khan gave his blessing to Mr Niazi, to the surprise and shock of the majority of the PTI’s parliamentary party.

However, he was sworn in as the senior minister soon after the swearing in of PM Niazi on Aug 5, though without allocation of any portfolio.

The billionaire PTI legislator was expecting home and services departments “to deliver to the goodwill of the PTI government,” according to a source close to him.

However, Monday’s allocation of portfolios to all 16 ministers and two advisers came as a shock for him and his supporters as he was allotted physical planning & housing (PPH) and tourism. Adding insult to the injury, archaeology - a small understaffed wing of the tourism department - was given to MLA Mohammad Iqbal on the following day during “division of work” by the prime minister between the two special assistants.

It was why Mr Ilyas had not only abstained from the cabinet’s inaugural session on Tuesday but he had also sent signals that he was contemplating resigning from the cabinet in protest against “non-fulfilment of some commitments made to him.”

Apart from Mr Ilyas, three other ministers, Shahida Saghir, who happens to be his aunt, Chaudhry Ali Shan Soni and Sardar Mir Akbar, had also stayed away from the cabinet’s maiden, though informal, sitting.

“Personally, he does not feel comfortable in the cabinet, because not only the commitment made to him by PM Niazi with regard to the portfolios [to be allotted to him] was not fulfilled but also his other pledges during the election campaign to different people to ensure PTI’s sweeping victory were also brushed aside,” the source, close to Mr Ilyas, had told Dawn on condition of anonymity.

“Instead of carrying this unnecessary burden, he [Mr Ilyas] feels he can better perform as an MLA,” he had added.

However, Mr Rabbani downplayed the situation, maintaining that absence from the cabinet meeting was “in no way an indication of the alleged unhappiness of Mr Ilyas.”

“If he could not turn up yesterday, he will be in attendance tomorrow,” he said.

The information minister said Mr Ilyas was among the important party leaders who had played a pivotal role in its success in elections.

“He [Mr Ilyas] has a direct approach to the party chairman [Imran Khan] and can convey anything to him directly. But there is no truth in reports that he is considering resigning from the cabinet.”

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2021