14-member Punjab cabinet sworn in

LAHORE-A 14-member Punjab Cabinet was sworn in here on Tuesday at a ceremony held at Governor's House amid slogans of 'Go Musharraf Go' raised by PML-N workers. Punjab Governor, Lt Gen (Retd) Khalid Maqbool administered the oath. The new Cabinet consists of 15 Ministers as PPP's Raja Riaz has already taken oath as Senior Minister. Out of the 14 Ministers who took oath today, six belong to PPP. The PML-N Ministers were wearing black bands around their arms as mark of protest against being administered oath by Governor Khalid Maqbool, a nominee of President Musharraf in Punjab. They also did not sit on their seats during entire process of oath-taking as they did not want to stand to show respect on arrival of the Governor.The Federal Ministers of PML-N had also done the same when they took oath by Musharraf last month. Earlier, before start of the oath-taking ceremony, the PML-N workers chanted anti-Musharraf slogans. The names and portfolios of the Ministers belonging to the PML-N are: Rana Sanaullah, Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Mian Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman, Excise & Taxation, Ahmed Ali Olukh, Agriculture, Nadeem Kamran, Food, Malik Muhammad Iqbal Channar, Special Education, Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor, Prisons, Haji Ehsanuddin Qureshi, Religious Affairs and Auqaf, and Kamran Michael, Human Rights and Minorities. The Ministers who took oath from PPP side, included: Dr. Tanvirul Islam, Health, Farooq Yousuf Ghurki, Communication and Works, Ashraf Sohna, Labour, Haji Muhammad Ishaq, Revenue, Neelum Jabbar Chaudhry, Population Welfare and Tanveer Ashraf Kaira, Finance and P&D. Raja Riaz, the Senior Minister, has been given the charge of Irrigation Department.

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