Two NWFP MNAs to be inducted into cabinet

Published November 25, 2002

MANSEHRA, Nov 24: Two PML-Q MNAs from Hazara, Sardar Shahjehan Yousaf and Omar Ayub Khan, are likely to be inducted in the federal cabinet in the next phase of its expansion, reliable sources informed Dawn on Sunday.

The decision has been taken at a meeting of the PML-Q presided over by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.  The sources said the party’s leadership in the NWFP has convinced the party’s central leadership that the role of the NWFP in the politics of the country could not be ignored.

The PML-Q provincial leadership, according to sources, has made it clear to the party’s central leadership that induction of only one person, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao in the federal cabinet would create a sense of deprivation among the people of the NWFP in general and the PML-Q ranks in particular.

It is learnt that the PML-Q central leadership was facing great difficulties in making their choice from the NWFP due to the election of 29 MMA candidates on 35 National Assembly seats of the province in election.

The four NA seats which the PML-Q has got from NWFP, are also from Hazara division and in this background, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain after mutual consultations have decided to induct Sardar Shahjehan and Omar Ayub in the federal cabinet in the next phase, the sources added.

Sardar Shahjehan Yousaf, who was elected from NA-20 Mansehra-I, is the son of Sardar Mohammad Yousaf, the ex-MNA and the PML-Q general-secretary of the NWFP chapter and Omar Ayub Khan, who was elected from NA-19 Haripur, is the son of Gohar Ayub Khan, former foreign minister and the central secretary general of the PML-Q.