PESHAWAR: A 13-member provincial cabinet picked by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi took the oath of office on Friday in Peshawar.
According to a statement from the KP government, the cabinet’s swearing-in ceremony took place at the Governor’s House in Peshawar.
“KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi administered the oath,” the statement said. “Those sworn in as provincial ministers included Meena Khan Afridi, Arshad Ayub Khan, Amjad Ali, Aftab Alam Afridi, Fazal Shakoor Khan, Khaleequr Rehman, Riaz Khan, Syed Fakhar Jehan, Aqibullah Khan and Faisal Khan Tarakai.
“KP Governor Kundi congratulated the newly sworn-in provincial ministers and expressed his best wishes to them,” it added.
According to an earlier summary sent to the KP governor by the provincial government, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, CM Afridi had selected his cabinet members, while also picking Muzammil Aslam and Taj Muhammad as advisers, and Shafi Jan as a special assistant.
The PTI’s KP chapter had also confirmed the names in a post on social media platform X.
Former KP finance minister Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra congratulated the new provincial cabinet and wished them all the best.
Afridi — who was elected 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 the newly appointed CM he had “complete authority” to form the provincial cabinet.
Opposition members in the KP Assembly were criticising 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 that members of the previous cabinet with “corruption allegations and bad reputation” should not be part of the new one.
