Gilgit-Baltistan chief minister names 12 members for cabinet
Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Amjad Hussain has named 12 assembly members as ministers in his cabinet. The list includes eight PPP lawmakers and four from the IPP, while no portfolios have yet been announced.
GILGIT: Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Amjad Hussain has selected 12 members of the regional assembly to join his cabinet as ministers, according to an official notification issued after his swearing-in.
The notification, issued by the Services and General Administration Department and Cabinet Department, said that on the advice of the chief minister, the Gilgit-Baltistan governor had appointed the named assembly members as ministers in the Gilgit-Baltistan government. It does not mention any portfolios for the appointees.
Cabinet composition
According to the notification, eight of the new ministers belong to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and four are from the Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP). The PPP members named in the cabinet are Zulfiqar Ali Murad, Syed Jalal Shah, Muhammad Ali Akhtar, Naiknam Karim, Iqbal Hassan, Raja Nasir Khan, Muhammad Naseem and Syed Tauqeer Mehdi.
The four IPP members included in the cabinet are Aman Ali, Asad Shafiq, Anwar Ali and Muhammad Dilpazeer. These four had contested the June 7 elections in Gilgit-Baltistan as independent candidates before later joining the IPP.
Assembly strength and pending by-election
At present, the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly consists of 14 PPP members, nine from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), seven from the IPP, one member from Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen and one Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-backed independent lawmaker.
One seat, GBA-9 Skardu-III, is due for a by-election. The Gilgit-Baltistan Election Commission announced the by-poll earlier this month after the Gilgit-Baltistan Supreme Appellate Court disqualified PPP candidate Fida Muhammad Nashad for concealing assets in his nomination papers. However, the election commission has not yet announced the polling date.
Post-election arrangement
Following the elections, the PML-N and the IPP decided to support the PPP in the contests for chief minister, speaker and deputy speaker. Under that arrangement, however, the PML-N was to sit on the opposition benches.
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