LAHORE – In a major development, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has reconstituted his cabinet by including just one new minister and filling the portfolios left vacant by the Pakistan People’s Party ministers’ ouster by awarding additional charges to his existing Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz ministers.
The Unification Bloc received no ministerial slot in the first phase of the cabinet restructuring. Zulfiqar Khosa is the new addition in Shahbaz’s cabinet, bagging the slot of the provincial finance minister. Ahmed Ali Olakh has been given the additional charge of the Irrigation Ministry, Rana Sanaullah was given the Revenue Ministry, Ahsanuddin Qureshi handed over the Labour Ministry, while Abdul Ghafoor Chaudhry was given the additional portfolio of the Mines and Minerals Ministry.
Raja Ashfaq has been appointed adviser of the Ministry of Cooperative, while Zakiya Shahnawaz was appointed adviser of the Population Ministry. The two appointees are not elected members of the Punjab Assembly and per rules, non-elected members can be appointed ministers for three months. This is the first phase of reconstitution of the cabinet in which the Unification Bloc was not made part of the cabinet, leaving the members of the bloc high and dry.
Following the new entry, the cabinet strength has risen to 10. Pervious cabinet consisted of 16 ministers. The ministerial slots had fallen vacant after Pakistan People’s Party ministers Raja Riaz, Ashraf Sohna, Tanvir Ashraf Kaira, Haji Ishaq, Dr Tanvirul Islam, Farooq Yousaf Ghurki and Neelam Jabbar were ousted from the cabinet.
Meanwhile, 13 slots of parliamentary secretaries are still vacant and could be filled in the second phase of the cabinet’s reconstitution.
