MUZAFFARABAD: AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider has decided to appoint at least eight more PML-N lawmakers as ministers.

On Friday, the AJK Press Information Department (PID) informed mediapersons to make it to the President House at 9am on Saturday to attend the swearing in ceremony of new cabinet members.

However, till 9:30pm, even the concerned government functionaries and many ruling PML-N lawmakers were in the dark about the new ministers.

“All I can confirm to you is that eight persons are being inducted in the cabinet, as we have been asked to make arrangements for them, such as staff cars and offices,” said an official at the services and general administration department.

The official expressed ignorance about the names of the likely ministers, and said the notification was likely to be issued on Saturday morning.

However, a source in the government claimed that Raja Abdul Qayyum Khan from Muzaffarabad, Chaudhry Yasin Gulshan from Abbaspur (Poonch), Raja Naseer Ahmed Khan from Sehnsa (Kotli), Chaudhry Masood Khalid from Dadyal (Mirpur) and Col retired Waqar Noor from Barnala (Bhimber) were likely to be inducted from AJK territory and Chaudhry Mohammad Ishaq, Chaudhry Javed Akhtar and Ahmed Raza Qadri from the refugees settled in Pakistan.

Mr Haider had repeatedly vowed that he would not increase the number of ministers under any “pressure or blackmailing” and would prefer to go home, instead.

The expansion would increase the size of cabinet to 20. Besides, a PML-N leader is also enjoying perks and privileges of a minister as senior adviser to the PM.

In the constitutional reforms authored jointly by the PPP and PML-N during the former’s government, the latter had proposed that the size of the cabinet should not be more than 12.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2018