The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government assigned portfolios to the newly formed 13-member all-male provincial cabinet on Saturday.
The 13-member provincial cabinet picked by KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi took the oath of office a day ago in Peshawar.
Many on social media were quick to point out that the new KP government lacked female representation.
A notification issued today from the Cabinet Wing of the KP government’s Administration Department said CM Afridi assigned the following portfolios to the 13 members:
Provincial ministers:
- Meena Khan Afridi — local government, elections and rural development
- Arshad Ayub Khan — elementary and secondary education
- Fazal Shakoor Khan — public health engineering
- Amjad Ali — housing
- Aftab Alam Afridi — law, parliamentary affairs and human rights
- Syed Fakhar Jehan — excise, taxation and narcotics control
- Riaz Khan — irrigation
- Khaleequr Rehman — health
- Aqibullah Khan — relief, rehabilitation and settlement
- Faisal Khan Tarakai — labour
Aides
- Muzzammil Aslam — finance adviser
- Taj Muhammad — sports and youth affairs adviser
- Shafiullah Jan — special assistant to the chief minister on information and public relations
Afridi — who was elected the new provincial chief executive last month — had previously insisted that he would announce his team after meeting incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan.
However, after repeated attempts to meet the former premier were unsuccessful, Imran’s sister told the newly appointed chief minister he had “complete authority” to form the provincial cabinet.
Opposition members in the KP Assembly were criticising the ruling PTI over its failure to form the provincial cabinet, saying government affairs had come to a halt. The lawmakers had also voiced the fear that the prolonged delay in the cabinet formation was tantamount to inviting the imposition of an emergency in the province.
The PTI’s provincial chapter had previously also insisted that members of the previous cabinet with “corruption allegations and bad reputation” should not be part of the new one.
