Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi early on Friday announced his provincial cabinet comprising 10 provincial ministers, two advisers and one special assistant, with the oath-taking ceremony to take place later today.
According to a summary sent to the KP governor by the provincial government, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, Afridi picked Meena Khan Afridi, Arshad Ayub Khan, Amjad Ali, Aftab Alam Khan, Fazal Shakoor Khan, Khaleequr Rahman, Riaz Khan, Syed Fakhar Jehan, Aqibullah Khan and Faisal Khan as provincial ministers.
He also picked Muzammil Aslam and Taj Muhammad as advisers, and Shafi Jan as a special assistant. The PTI’s KP chapter also confirmed the names in a post on social media platform X.
Subsequently, KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi said that he had signed the summary for the new KP cabinet that was submitted by the chief minister.
“The oath-taking ceremony of the newly appointed provincial ministers will take place at the Governor House today at 3pm,” he said.
Meanwhile, former KP minister Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra congratulated the new provincial cabinet and wished them all the best.
Afridi — who was elected[1] the new provincial chief executive earlier this month — had previously insisted that he would announce his team after meeting incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan. However, after repeated attempts to meet the former premier were unsuccessful, Imran’s sister told[2] the newly appointed CM he had “complete authority” to form the provincial cabinet.
Opposition members in the KP Assembly had been criticising[3] the ruling PTI over its failure to form the provincial cabinet, saying government affairs had come to a halt. The lawmakers had also voiced the fear that the prolonged delay in the cabinet formation was tantamount to inviting the imposition of an emergency in the province.
The PTI’s provincial chapter had previously also insisted[4] that members of the previous cabinet with “corruption allegations and bad reputation” should not be part of the new one.