By Staff Reporter
PESHAWAR: After days of uncertainty, the provincial northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province finalised its cabinet, swearing in 10 provincial ministers while appointing two advisers and a special assistant to the chief minister.
The formation of the new administration under Chief Minister Sohail Afridi came amid sharp criticism on social media for its complete lack of female representation, highlighting ongoing concerns about gender inclusion in Pakistani politics.
Bushra Gohar, a member of the National Democratic Movement and a former member of the National Assembly, directed her remarks at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s governor, Faisal Karim Kundi, who approved the cabinet. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, she wrote that he had “signed the summary of an all-male provincial cabinet.” “You could have at least raised an observation about it,” Gohar added.
“Concerning that women are excluded from all key decisions forums in the province.”Rukhshanda Naz, a former ombudsperson for the province, echoed those sentiments, questioning the appointments. “Men are included as advisers, why not women?” she said. “There is no democracy without women’s participation.”
Shireen Mazari, a former federal human rights minister and ex-leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, also weighed in, noting that the ruling party had only one directly elected female member in the provincial assembly, who serves as the current deputy speaker. Mazari pointed to broader electoral issues, saying, “The Election Commission of Pakistan/Supreme Court denied PTI the reserved seats it should have been given and merrily distributed them as free gifts to all other parties in the KP assembly. Was that acceptable to you?”
The cabinet’s composition, detailed in an official notification, assigns key portfolios across various departments. Meena Khan Afridi has been appointed as the provincial minister for local government, elections and rural development. Arshad Ayub Khan will oversee elementary and secondary education.
Fazal Shakoor has been given responsibility for the public health engineering department, while Dr. Amjad will serve as minister for housing. Aftab Alam Afridi has been named minister for law, parliamentary affairs and human rights. Syed Fakhar Jehan will head excise, taxation and narcotics control. Riaz Khan has been appointed to lead the irrigation department. Khaleequr Rehman will serve as minister for health, and Aqibullah Khan will take charge of relief, rehabilitation and settlement. Faisal Khan Tarkai has been designated minister for labour.
In addition to the ministers, Muzzammil Aslam has been appointed as adviser on finance, Taj Muhammad Tarand as adviser on sports and youth affairs, and Shafiullah Jan as special assistant to the chief minister on information. The new 13-member cabinet is notably smaller than the previous one under former Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, which at one point swelled to 33 members before being trimmed in a reshuffle.
Still, its size has drawn internal scrutiny within PTI, the dominant party in the province. Party officials said the cabinet defied directives from PTI’s founder, Imran Khan, the former prime minister, who had advised limiting it to five to eight members. Khan, according to those officials, had emphasised keeping the cabinet “single-digit and compact,” but Chief Minister Afridi proceeded with a larger group. Khan had also specifically cautioned against including certain individuals: Aqibullah Khan, the brother of former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser; Faisal Tarkai, the brother of former provincial minister Shahram Tarkai; and former provincial minister Shakeel Khan. Despite the advice, Aqibullah Khan and Faisal Khan Tarkai were included in the final lineup. A senior PTI leader said Khan had further recommended incorporating senior members who had been overlooked in the past, but those suggestions were not followed.
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