MUZAFFARABAD: A day after taking charge as the new Azad Jammu and Kashmir prime minister, Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore oversaw the induction of 18 PPP legislators into his cabinet on Wednesday as the region witnessed one of its largest recent ministerial expansions.
The oath was administered at Aiwan i Sadr by AJK Legislative Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Latif Akbar, who served as acting president due to the illness of President Barrister Sultan Mahmood. Mahmood, officials said, was unable to travel to the capital because of health issues.
The ceremony was attended by Rathore, former prime ministers Sardar Tanveer Ilyas and Haji Yaqoob Khan, senior civil servants and a large turnout of PPP supporters.
The 18 new ministers sworn in are Mian Abdul Waheed, Sardar Javed Ayoub, Javed Iqbal Budhanvi, Chaudhry Qasim Majeed, Amar Yasin, Sardar Ziaul Qamar, Syed Bazil Ali Naqvi, Nabila Ayub Khan, Deevan Ali Chughtai, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Chaudhry Arshad, Chaudhry Muhammad Rasheed, Yasir Sultan, Sardar Muhammad Hussain, Chaudhry Akhlaq, Faheem Akhtar Rabbani, Rafique Nayyar and Ali Shan Soni.
Eight of the ministers were elected on PPP tickets in 2021, while the remaining legislators had originally won as PTI candidates before shifting loyalties to the PPP in recent months. Nabila Ayub Khan, elected on a reserved seat, is the only woman in the cabinet. No member elected on refugee seats has been included.
Portfolios were not announced immediately, though a later notification designated Mian Abdul Waheed as the most senior minister.
During the ceremony, two advisers to the government were also named. Sardar Ahmad Saghir and Sardar Fahad Yaqoob were appointed as advisers, and though the AJK Constitution does not prescribe an oath for advisers, PM Rathore administered one regardless. Saghir’s mother, MLA Shahida Saghir, and Yaqoob’s father, Haji Yaqoob, both originally elected on PTI tickets, have recently joined the PPP.
Rathore assumed office on Tuesday after Chaudhry Anwarul Haq was removed through a vote of no confidence. He is now the fourth prime minister elected in AJK in four years, taking charge as he begins assembling a cabinet drawn from a coalition of newcomers and loyalists.
