Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Chief Minister Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore on Friday assigned portfolios to his 18 ministers and two advisors, two days after the formation of his cabinet.
According to an official notification, senior minister Mian Abdul Waheed retained the department of Law, Justice, Parliamentary Affairs and Human Rights, which he had also held in the previous coalition government.
Sardar Javed Ayoub was assigned forest, wildlife, fisheries and Muzaffarabad Development Authority; Syed Bazil Ali Naqvi received health and well-being of the population; Javed Iqbal Budhanvi was given food; and Nabila Ayoub was given the portfolio of the cause, arts and languages of Kashmir.
The portfolios of works and communications (C&W), local government and rural development and finance and internal revenue also went to PPP loyalists Sardar Ziaul Qamar, Chaudhry Amar Yasin and Chaudhry Qasim Majeed, respectively.
Yasin is the son of PPP AJK chairman Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin, who was overlooked for the prime minister’s post in the recent shake-up.
The most recent participants in the PPP retained the portfolios they had held in the coalition government led by Chaudhry Anwarul Haq.
- Deevan Ali Chughtai – primary and secondary education
- Malik Zafar Iqbal – higher education
- Chaudhry Arshad: energy and water resources
- Chaudhry Muhammad Rasheed – Power Development Organization
- Yasir Sultan: physical planning and housing
- Chaudhry Akhlaq: income, stamps and property of evacuees
- Faheem Akhtar Rabbani – tourism and archeology
Arshad and Sultan are brother-in-law and son, respectively, of AJK President Barrister Sultan Mahmood.
Sardar Muhammad Hussain, a new member of the PPP who earlier looked after the welfare of the population, was assigned social welfare, women development, zakat and usher.
Muhammad Rafique Nayyar and Chaudhry Ali Shan Soni, who were not part of the previous coalition, were assigned religious affairs and auqaf and agriculture, livestock, irrigation, dairy development and small dams, respectively. Both had joined the PPP a little earlier than the other newcomers.
Among the advisors, Fahad Yaqoob received trade and industry, labor, sericulture and the government printing press, while Sardar Ahmad Saghir received sports, youth and culture.
Yaqoob is the son of senior PPP lawmaker and former president Haji Yaqoob Khan, while Saghir, who also served as an advisor in the Haq-led government, is the son of MLA Shahida Saghir, who recently joined the PPP.
Contrary to speculation that the information department would be handed over to Nayyar, the prime minister retained the portfolio.
Rathore was sworn in as the 16th chief minister of AJK on Tuesday.
The oath-taking ceremony was held a day after PPP’s Rathore was announced as the new prime minister of AJK after Chaudhry Anwarul Haq was ousted by a vote of no confidence (VoNC) in the region’s legislative assembly.
The oath was administered by AJK Legislative Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Latif Akbar at the President House in Muzaffarabad. The speaker performed his duty on behalf of the AJK President, Lawyer Sultan Mahmood, who reportedly He could not travel to the regional capital due to health problems.
