20 More Ministers To Be Inducted: Cabinet Expansion Deferred

Wednesday, October 8, 2008 at 10:10 am under Pakistan News 20 More Ministers To Be Inducted: Cabinet Expansion Deferred

ISLAMABAD :The matter of expansion in the federal cabinet has been deferred for a few days. PTV quoting official sources reported on Tuesday night.

OUR REPORTER RAJA AQEEL FROM ISLAMABAD ADDS: The government has decided to expand the Federal Cabinet by inducting 20 more ministers. Some reports on Tuesday suggested that the new ministers would take oath on Wednesday, however, due to joint sitting of the Parliament, it was deferred and now the new ministers would take oath of their offices in a few days.

The government finalised the formula for expansion of the Cabinet, and decided that 10 new ministers would be taken from Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), four from Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), three from Awami National Party (ANP), two from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) and one from Pakistan Muslim League (F).

The portfolios of some ministers made available till filing of this story are:

NAVEED QAMAR: Privatisation;

KHURSHID SHAH: Petroleum and Natural Resources;

QAMAR-UZ-ZAMAN QAIRA: Education;

CHAUDHRY AHMAD MUKHTAR: Commerce; and;

GHULAM AHMAD BILOUR: Health.

Other expected members of cabinet from the PPPP would be Farzana Raja, Malik Hamad, Aftab Shaban Mirani, Nabeel Ghabool, Tasneem Qureshi, Qayyum Jatoi, Ijaz Jakhrani, Munawar Talpur and Taj Jamali.

The expected members of cabinet from MQM are: Haider Abbas Rizvi, Khushbakht Shujaat and Wasim Akhtar. The Federal Cabinet was working in difficulty after Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) left the coalition due to its differences with the coalition partners, PPPP, and its nine ministers tendered their resignation from Gilani-led cabinet.

Various ministries and divisions were without ministers, while many ministers were having extra charge of different departments and divisions. Now with the expansion of Cabinet, some portfolios of sitting ministers have been changed, while the ministries and divisions without ministers will have new heads.