14-member KP caretaker cabinet takes oath

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Governor Haji Ghulam Ali on Thursday administered oath to a 14-member caretaker cabinet, hours after notifying their appointments for the roles, Radio Pakistan reported.

The development comes after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) recommended the KP government hold elections between April 15 and 17 in the province.

In a notification issued today, the Governor appointed the cabinet “in the 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)

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

It should be noted that the caretaker chief minister of the province Mohammad Azam Khan took oath as the KP caretaker chief minister on January 21, and Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi’s appointed as Punjab caretaker chief minister on January 22.

Last week, 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.

A notification from the governor was dispatched to CM Mahmood and Leader of the Opposition Akram Khan Durrani.