KP govt reshuffles cabinet

PESHAWAR

In a major reshuffle, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Friday inducted new ministers, advisers and special assistants and changed portfolios of several of them.
The government also changed the portfolio of health minister Shaukat Ali Yousufzai. He will now head the industries ministry. Shahraam Khan has been given the portfolio of a senior minister.
A meeting of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf core committee had approved the cabinet reshuffle a few days ago. With the induction of new ministers, the strength of cabinet has become 15, which also includes five advisors and six special assistants to the chief minister. No Jamaat-e-Islami lawmaker has been given a portfolio in the cabinet.
KP Information Minister Shah Farman told reporters that four advisors to the CM have been promoted to ministerial offices whereas Ikramullah Gandapur has been inducted in the cabinet. Two special assistants to the CM have been made advisers. Akbar Ayub Khan has also been made an adviser and another three lawmakers have been given the portfolios of special assistants.
Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, Qalandar Khan Lodhi, Ziaullah Afridi and Mian Jamsheeduddin have been made ministers. They were holding offices of advisers to the CM since June 2013. However, their portfolios would be announced later. Ikramullah Gandapur has also been inducted to the cabinet. Gandapur was elected on a seat that fell vacant after the killing of his younger brother Israrullah Gandapur in a suicide attack on October 16, 2013.
Both Amjad Afridi from Kohat and Shakil Khan from Malakand have been made advisers to the CM. They were earlier serving the KP government as special assistants. Malik Qasim Khan from Karak and Yaseen Khalil from Peshawar are also serving as advisers to the CM.
Akbar Ayub is younger brother of former communications and works minister Yousuf Ayub Khan. Elected on a PTI ticket from Haripur, Yousaf had lost his office on the charges of producing a fake degree.
Ishtiaq Umar from Peshawar and Mohibullah from Swat and Abdul Munaem from Shangla have been inducted in the cabinet as special assistants. Dr Meher Taj Roghani, Sardar Soran Singh and Arif Yousaf are already serving as special assistants.