Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore on Friday allocated portfolios to his 18 ministers and two advisers, two days after the formation of his cabinet.
According to an official notification, the senior-most 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 forests, wildlife, fisheries and the Muzaffarabad Development Authority; Syed Bazil Ali Naqvi was given health and population welfare; Javed Iqbal Budhanvi received food; and Nabila Ayoub was allocated the portfolio of the Kashmir cause, arts and languages.
The portfolios of works and communications (C&W), local government and rural development and finance and inland revenue also went to the PPP loyalists, Sardar Ziaul Qamar, Chaudhry Amar Yasin and Chaudhry Qasim Majeed, respectively.
Yasin is the son of PPP AJK President Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin, who was overlooked for the office of prime minister in the recent change.
Most recent entrants to the PPP retained the portfolios they had held in the Chaudhry Anwarul Haq–led coalition government.
Deevan Ali Chughtai — elementary and secondary education
Malik Zafar Iqbal — higher education
Chaudhry Arshad — energy and water resources
Chaudhry Muhammad Rasheed — Power Development Organisation
Yasir Sultan — physical planning and housing
Chaudhry Akhlaq —revenue, stamps and evacuee property
Faheem Akhtar Rabbani — tourism and archaeology
Arshad and Sultan are the brother-in-law and son, respectively, of AJK President Barrister Sultan Mahmood.
Sardar Muhammad Hussain, a new entrant into the PPP who previously held population welfare, 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 setup — were allotted religious affairs and auqaf and agriculture, animal husbandry, irrigation, dairy development and small dams, respectively. Both had joined the PPP slightly earlier than the other newcomers.
Among the advisers, Fahad Yaqoob was given trade and industry, labour, sericulture and the Government Printing Press, while Sardar Ahmad Saghir received sports, youth and culture.
Yaqoob is the son of senior PPP legislator and former president Haji Yaqoob Khan, while Saghir — who had also served as adviser in the Mr Haq–led government — is the son of MLA Shahida Saghir, who recently joined the PPP.
Contrary to speculation that the information department would go to Nayyar, the prime minister retained the portfolio with himself.
Rathore was sworn in as the 16th prime minister of AJK on Tuesday.
The oath-taking ceremony was held a day after PPP’s Rathore was announced as the new AJK premier after Chaudhry Anwarul Haq was ousted through 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’s House in Muzaffarabad. The speaker performed the duty on behalf of AJK President Barrister Sultan Mahmood, who reportedly could not travel to the regional capital owing to his health issues.
