LAHORE: The 11 newly-inducted ministers to the Punjab cabinet took oath of their office at the Governor House here on Monday.

Governor Malik Rafique Rajwana administered the oath. Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was also present.

Those who took the oath included: Jehangir Khanzada, Naghma Mushtaq, Amanatullah Shadi Khel, Khwaja Salman Rafique, Sheikh Allauddin, Manshaullah Butt, Mehr Ijaz Achlana, Syed Zaeem Hussain Qadri, Naeem Akhtar Bhabha, Malik Ahmed Yar Hanjra and Khwaja Imran Nazir.

Mr Nazir, Lahore chapter general secretary of the PML-N, replaced Raza Ali Gillani, who is presently abroad.

Shahbaz to monitor new ministers’ work

He was not on the list of the ministers designate issued by the Governor House on Sunday. None in the official circles is ready to clarify whether Mr Gilani from Okara will take oath as the 12th minister after returning home or not.

After the induction of Naghma Mushataq (Multan), Ahmed Yar Hanjra (Muzaffargarh), Mehr Ijaz Achlana (Layyah) and Naeem Akhtar Bhabha (Vehari), the representation of ministers from south Punjab has increased to nine.

Earlier, Haroon Sultan Bukhari (Muzaffargarh), Iqbal Channar (Bahawalpur), Asif Saeed Manais (Vehari), Chaudhry Shafiq (Rahim Yar Khan) and Abdul Waheed Chaudhry (Multan) have been part of the cabinet.

Two of the 21 ministers, Zakia Shahnawaz and Khalil Tahir Sindhu, were elected on reserved seats.

A PML-N leader says that two of the new ministers – one of them from Lahore – have been inducted on the insistence of a member of the Sharif family. He claims that the powerful person did not leave the office of the authority concerned until a notification of the two ministers was issued.

The cabinet expansion was long overdue, a fact admitted by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif himself at a meeting of the cabinet after the oath-taking ceremony.

“The expansion has been delayed much ...but there were [cogent] reasons behind the delay,” he said, cautioning them that he would monitor their performance as they were being given all powers to run their departments.

The cabinet represents both new and old guards.

Mr Khanzada is the son of former Punjab minister Shuja Khanzada (Attock), who was killed in a terror hit in 2015.

Ms Mushtaq is the widow of Mushtaq Lang, and belongs to Jalalpur Pirwala. She won the seat in 2008 on a PML-Q seat and was disqualified later. In the by-election, she was defeated by then prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s brother, Ahmed Mujtaba Gilani.

Mr Shadi Khel from Mianwali is the brother of former MNA Obaidullah Shadi Khel. His father Ghulam Rasool Shadi Khel also remained an MPA.

Mr Rafique is the brother of Federal Railways Minister Saad Rafiq, whose wife is also MPA on reserved seats for women. Prior to the oath, he was serving adviser to the chief minister on health.

Mr Allauddin belongs to Kasur and has been MPA since 2002. He was a PML-Q MPA from 2002 to 2008. After the 2008 polls, he joined the ruling PML-N as a member of the Q League’s forward bloc. He has been one of the major contributors to the assembly business from the private members side.

Mr Butt from Sialkot district is among the aides of Defence Minister Khwaja Asif. He has been to the assembly for a third term.

Mr Achlana from Layyah is a law graduate and has been parliamentary secretary for home. He has been elected MPA in 2002, 2008 and 2013 elections. His wife, Rehana Ijaz, is also an MPA on a women reserved seat.

Mr Qadri is from Lahore and is an old guard who has served as Punjab chapter’s general secretary of the PML-N during the Musharraf regime. His wife is also a member of the Punjab Assembly, while prior to his induction into the cabinet he was serving as Punjab government’s spokesperson.

Mr Bhabha is from Vehari and has been serving as MPA for the second consecutive term. He has been parliamentary secretary for communication and works department.

Mr Hanjra is the nephew of MNA Sultan Mahmood Hanjra, from Kot Addu.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2016