LAHORE, Nov 18: A 20-member strong caretaker cabinet comprising lawyers, retired judges, educationists and industrialists is taking oath at the Governor’s House on Monday morning with Justice Ejaz Nisar (retired) as the likely chief minister.

The list of the cabinet members was finalised after the governor dissolved the provincial assembly on Sunday night.

According to insiders, initially the authorities were considering to have a thin cabinet as theoretically its role did not go beyond holding `free and fair’ elections, and running day-to-day official business.

But, they revealed, the number of cabinet members swelled to 20 because of the “last-minute consultations and approvals.”

“The number of chairs for the caretaker cabinet members continued to increase in the Darbar Hall of the Governor’s House till late in the night,” a source said.

The sources informed Dawn the Governor’s Secretariat and the officials concerned were busy giving final touches to the oath taking ceremony to be attended by judges of the Lahore High Court, Punjab Assembly Speaker Afzal Sahi, Lahore corps commander and other senior military and civil officers, and politicians.

They said `so far’ Justice Ejaz Nisar (retired) was the most likely nominee for the slot of the caretaker chief minister.

The cabinet members were tipped as Kinnaird College Principal Dr Mira Phailbus, agriculturist Khurshid Zaman Qureshi, journalist Mubashir Luqman, former Punjab Advocate General Maqbool Elahi Malik, former Supreme Court Bar Association president Karim A Malik, Justice Asif Jan (retired), Barrister Mehmood Ahmad Sheikh, columnist and historian Faqir Syed Aijazuddin, Senator Syed Dilawar Abbas, industrialist Walid Tariq Saigol and Mian Shafqat Ali, educationist Dr Arifa Syeda, Mr Mumtaz Khan Manais, Khawaja Jalaluddin Roomi, Mian Muhammad Shafiq, Wing Commander Aslam Khan (retired), Mr Sohail Afzal, Saad Ahsanuddin, Shahzad Azam Khan and Makhdoom Iftikharul Hasan.