15-member KP interim cabinet takes oath

PESHAWAR – A 15-member Khyber Pakhtunkhwa caretaker cabinet was sworn in at Governor House in Peshawar on Thursday.

KP Governor Haji Ghulam Ali issued a notification in this regard. The development follows the Election Commission of Pakistan’s recommendation to the KP government to hold elections between April 15-17 in the province.

In a notification issued here, 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:

Abdul Haleem Qasuriya (former MPA)

Adnan Jalil (former Peshawar small industry chamber’s president)

Bakht Nawaz (University of Gujrat’s deputy registrar)

Fazal Elahi

Haji Ghufran (former senator)

Hamid Shah

Justice (Retd) Irshad Qaiser

Khushdil Khan Malik (former National Security Division additional secretary)

Manzoor Khan Afridi (businessman)

Muhammad Ali Shah (Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Water Resources)

Advocate Sawal Nazir

Shafi Ullah Khan

Shahid Khan Khattak (former KP southern region president)

Syed Masood Shah

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.

Rifts within PML-Q intensify after Shujaat Hussain ‘removed as party president’