The federal government on Tuesday notified portfolio s of five new ministers — four federal and one state — a week after the 37-member cabinet of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif took their oath.
According to a notification issued by the Cabinet Division, Khurram Dastagir Khan has been given the portfolio of power, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq has been made the minister for economic affairs, Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada has been appointed the human rights minister, while Murtaza Javed Abbasi has bagged the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.
In addition, Muhammad Hashim Notezai has been made the minister of state for power.
The first oath-taking ceremony of PM’s Shehbaz’s cabinet was held on April 19 at the President’s House without President Dr Alvi, who was reportedly unwell at the time.
He was, however, present when a second oath-taking ceremony was held for four new members of the cabinet.
The second swearing-in ceremony took place just days after the president and the prime minister held their first meeting since Shehbaz became premier. The President’s Secretariat had said the leaders discussed issues related to the evolving political and economic situation in the country.
PM Shehbaz’s cabinet continued to expand amid reports of differences among allies in the new coalition government and even within the PML-N over the selection of members and distribution of portfolios among them.
A source in the PML-N had told Dawn that there was a divide within the party over the selection of cabinet members and distribution of portfolios among them. He had said PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz was “unhappy” with the PM for not considering names of veteran party leaders, who had a close and long association with the party’s supreme leader Nawaz.
Later, another Dawn report had identified Javed Latif as one such party member, saying that PM Shehbaz had accommodated him in the cabinet to honour Nawaz’s wish. The report stated that Latif and Shehbaz had were not on talking terms since the former had raised questions over the latter’s alleged links with the establishment.