Punjab gets governor, cabinet after one month of CM election
The Punjab province has gotten a governor and cabinet as Baligh-ur-Rehman and an eight-member cabinet took oath on Monday night.
LAHORE: The Punjab province has gotten a governor and cabinet as Baligh-ur-Rehman and an eight-member cabinet took oath on Monday night.
One month after Hamza Shahbaz was sworn in as Punjab chief minister, the governor and the provincial cabinet took the oath of office. Hamza Shahbaz attended the oath ceremony yesterday.
The new Punjab Governor Baligh-ur-Rehman administered the oath to the eight-member provincial cabinet during a ceremony at Governor House Lahore on Monday night.
The oath ceremony was attended by Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shahbaz and other senior Punjab government officials. Chief Secretary Punjab Kamran Ali Afzal read out the notification of appointments.
Rana Muhammad Iqbal, Ata Tarar, Ali Haider Gilani, Owais Leghari, Khawaja Salman Rafique, Malik Ahmad Khan, Hassan Murtaza and Bilal Asghar are among those who took oath in the first phase of the new cabinet of Punjab.
Earlier, the new Governor Punjab Baligh-ur-Rehman had taken the oath of office which was administered by the Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Muhammad Ameer Bhatti.
The oath ceremony was held at Governor House Lahore in which the Punjab CM Hamza Shahbaz and other senior officials were present.
It may be noted that Baligh-ur-Rehman is the 39th Governor of Punjab. The day before yesterday, President Arif Alvi had approved the appointment of Baligh-ur-Rehman as the Governor of Punjab.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had sent advice to the president for the appointment of Baligh-ur-Rehman as the governor.
President Arif Alvi had rejected the summary of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and took the stand that Omar Sarfraz Cheema holds the post of Governor of Punjab, therefore, there is no justification for a new appointment and Article 101 (2) of the Constitution. The governor will continue to hold office until further notice by the president.
Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar was removed from the post of Governor of Punjab after the filing of the no-confidence motion against former prime minister Imran Khan and was replaced by Omar Sarfraz Cheema on April 7.
However, on Monday, the President accepted the advice of the Prime Minister and approved the appointment of Baligh-ur-Rehman as the Governor of Punjab.
