Hours after the 15-member Khyber Pakhtunkhwa caretaker cabinet was sworn in, the eight-member Punjab interim cabinet also took oath on Thursday.

The development comes after the Election Commission of Pakistan’s recommendation for elections be held between April 9 and 13 in Punjab, and between April 15 and 17 in KP.

The ECP’s direction came days after Mohammad Azam Khan on Jan 21 had taken oath as the KP caretaker chief minister and Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi’s appointment as Punjab caretaker chief minister on Jan 22.

Punjab Governor Baligurh Rehman administered oath to the eight-member cabinet at a ceremony at Governor’s House in Lahore where Naqvi was also in attendance.

The members of the interim cabinet include:

1. S M Tanveer
2. Javed Akram
3. Ibrahim Murad
4. Bilal Afzal
5. Dr Jamal Nasir
6. Mansoor Qadir
7. Syed Azfar Ali Nasir
8. Amir Mir

Radio Pakistan reported that “three finalised ministers Wahab Riaz, Naseem Sadiq and Tamkinat Karim” were expected to take oath later.

Speaking on the occasion, Naqvi said the caretaker setup was “completely apolitical and neutral”.

“Conducting transparent, fair, and free elections is the responsibility of the caretaker setup,” he said, adding that they would fulfill to do in a responsible manner.

“Elections will be held in a peaceful environment,” Naqvi added.

KP cabinet sworn in

A 15-member cabinet was sworn in as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa caretaker cabinet on Thursday, hours after KP Governor Haji Ghulam Ali issued a notification formally appointing them for the roles.

In a notification issued today, the Governor appointed the cabinet “in exercise of the powers conferred by Article 224(1a) read with Article 105 of the Constitution”.

Article 224(1a) states that in case an assembly is dissolved under Article 58 or Article 112, “the President, or the Governor, as the case may be, shall appoint a care-taker Cabinet” provided that the “members of the federal and provincial care-taker cabinets shall be appointed on the advice of the caretaker prime minister or the caretaker chief minister, as the case may be”.

The appointed members include the following:

1. Abdul Haleem Qasuriya (former MPA)
2. Adnan Jalil (former Peshawar small industry chamber’s president)
3. Bakht Nawaz (University of Gujrat’s deputy registrar)
4. Fazal Elahi
5. Haji Ghufran (former senator)
6. Hamid Shah
7. Justice (Retd) Irshad Qaiser
8. Khushdil Khan Malik (former National Security Division additional secretary)
9. Manzoor Khan Afridi (businessman)
10. Muhammad Ali Shah (Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Water Resources)
11. Advocate Sawal Nazir
12. Shafi Ullah Khan
13. Shahid Khan Khattak (former KP southern region president)
14. Syed Masood Shah
15. Taj Muhammad Afridi

The KP Assembly stood dissolved on Wednesday after the governor signed and approved the chief minister’s summary for the dissolution of the provincial legislature.

As elections in the province near, the PML-N on Tuesday offered the Qaumi Watan Party the options of alliance and seat adjustments for them.

Sources in the PML-N said in case of an electoral alliance, the two parties would formally disclose it in a presser. “We both want to defeat the PTI in polls,” an insider told Dawn.