QUETTA/ISLAMABAD:
On Friday, Balochistan Governor Abdul Wali Kakar administered the oath to a 14-member provincial cabinet in Balochistan. This cabinet formation comes approximately two months after the elected representatives to the provincial assembly were sworn in and more than one-and-a-half months after the province’s chief minister was elected.
Among those who took the oath are Sadiq Umrani, Ali Madad Jattak, Zahoor Buledi, Noor Muhammad Dumar, Sardar Faisal Jamali, Sarfraz Domki, Abdul Rehman Khetran, Saleem Khosa, Asim Kurd Gello, Bakht Kakar, Tariq Magsi, Shoaib Nosherwani, Raheel Durrani, and Zia Langau.
Chief Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti assumed office on March 2, but it took some time for him to form a cabinet and streamline provincial affairs.
Bugti announced on March 22 that an additional two weeks were necessary to finalize the cabinet formation. The delay in cabinet formation was initially attributed by provincial lawmakers to the Senate elections on April 2.
After the general elections, a total of 57 lawmakers in the province were sworn in by Zamrak Khan Achakzai, who presided over the maiden session of the provincial legislative on February 28.
The lawmakers represented various parties including the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), among others.
Bugti, who assumed the CM post uncontested, took the oath of office on March 2, facing multifaceted challenges as terrorism continues to impact the province significantly.
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