ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief and prime minister in-waiting Imran Khan on Saturday announced that he would be keeping the size of his federal cabinet small.
Initially, the cabinet will be of 15 to 20 ministers among which, allies will fill some of the important posts. According to party sources, Khan himself will monitor the conduct and progress of the ministers.
According to sources, Imran’s federal cabinet will include Asad Umar as the finance minister while Shah Mahmood Qureshi is being considered for foreign minister’s office. Shireen Mazari is also reportedly interested for the post, however, possibilities exist of her being made the defence minister.
Shafqat Mehmood is a contender for interior minister while the slot of the speaker National Assembly (NA) will be given to Sindh or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Dr Arif Alvi is a top choice for speaker while Malik Ameen Aslam will be the environment minister or adviser to PM.
PTI, which has 116 MNAs-elect, has managed to rope in eight independent MNAs-elect besides gaining support from MQM-P, BNP-M and PML-Q.
Although PTI is in a comfortable position to form their government in Punjab and KP, the party is still undecided about who would be filling in the position of KP CM. So far, the top choices are Parvez Khattak and Atif Khan.
Similarly, the decision of as to who the Punjab chief minister will be is still pending.
Aleem Khan, Yasmin Rashid, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Mian Mehmood ur Rashid, Mian Aslam Iqbal and Fawad Chaudhry are said to be contending for the top provincial office.
