Federal cabinet soars to 72 members as PM appoints more SAPMs
The number of federal cabinet members have soared to 72 as PM Shehbaz Sharif appointed two more SAPMs.
ISLAMABAD: The number of federal cabinet members have soared to 72 as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif appointed two more special assistants and a notification for the SAPM appointments was also issued.
Sardar Shah Jahan Yousuf and Malik Nauman Ahmed Langrial have been appointed as SAPMs by PM Shehbaz Sharif which increased the number of federal cabinet members to 72 including 34 federal ministers, seven ministers of state, four advisers to the PM and 27 SAPMs.
Last week, eight special assistants had been appointed, including Raza Rabbani, Irshad Ahmed Khan, Faisal Karim Kundi, Mahesh Kumar Malani, Faisal Karim Kundi, Sardar Salim Haider, Tasneem Ahmed Qureshi and Muhammad Ali Shah Bacha.
News360 reported in August that under the pressure of accommodating all the political parties of the ruling coalition, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), the number of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s cabinet has increased to 62.
Former PM Imran Khan left the 52-member cabinet, whereas, the premier Shehbaz Sharif had earlier announced that there will be no further expansion in the cabinet as part of austerity measures, but even after that, the trend of increasing the number of cabinet members continued.
Since there is no ministry, Chaudhry Salik Hussain was not given the portfolio of any federal ministry or division, but the portfolio of the investment board.
Similarly, among the two divisions of the Ministry of Energy, Khurram Dastgir was given the portfolio of the Power Division, while the Federal Minister of the Petroleum Division was still vacant. Musaddik Malik was given the portfolio of the Minister of State.
Khawaja Saad Rafique also holds the portfolio of the aviation division including the Ministry of Railways, the number of special assistants to the Prime Minister has increased to 17 and only three have portfolios and the remaining 14 special assistants have no portfolio at all. There are seven ministers of state and five advisers.
At the time of Imran Khan’s resignation as Prime Minister, there were 25 federal ministers, state ministers and advisers four each and 19 special assistants.
