LAHORE     -    A 37-member Punjab cabinet composed mostly of the former ministers of the then chief minister Shehbaz Sharif took oath late Sunday night at the Governor House here.

Punjab Governor Muhammad Balighur Rehman administered the oath to the provincial ministers. Chief Secretary Punjab Kamran Ali Afzal read out the notification regarding the appointment.

Among the ministers who have been included in the Hamza Shahbaz cabinet are also the three new members elected in the recent by-elections. They include Malik Asad Khokar, Sibtain Raza and Fida Hussain Wattoo. Three independent members including Bilal Asghar Waraich, Qasim Abbas Langah and Ahmed Ali Aulakh have also been included in the cabinet.

Two ministers, Syed Hasan Murtaza and Syed Ali Haider Gilani, have been taken from the PPP. Two women ministers, Azma Zahid Bukhari and Saba Sadiq are also part of the new cabinet.

Other ministers include former Speaker Punjab Assembly Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan, Maher Ijaz Ahmad Achlana, Siddique Khan Baloch, Kazim Ali Pirzada, Chaudhry Shafiq, Malik Nadeem Kamran, Mian Yawar Zaman, Colonel (retd) Ayub Gadhi, Chaudhry Iqbal Gujjar, Muhammad Manshaullah Butt, Tanveer Aslam Malik, Jahangir Khanzada, Rana Mashhood Ahmed, Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman, Khawaja Imran Nazir, Bilal Yasin, Malik Saiful Mulok Khokhar,  Rana Ejaz Noon, Khalil Tahir Sindhu, Colonel (Rtd) Rana Muhammad Tariq, Ghulam Qasim Hanjara, Zaheer Iqbal Channar, Zeeshan Rafiq, Sania Ashiq, , Rana Liaquat, Ashraf Ansari and Imran Khalid Butt.

Of these, Kazim Ali Pirzada, nephew of Riaz Pirzada, Siddique Khan Baloch, Saiful Mulook Khokar, Colonel (Rtd) Rana Muhammad Tariq, Azma Zahid Bukhari, Saba Sadiq, Ghulam Qasim Hanjara, Zaheer Iqbal Channar, Zeeshan Rafiq, Sania Ashiq, Rana Liaquat, Ashraf Ansari, Imran Khalid Butt, Hassan Murtaza, Haider Gilani, Bilal Asghar Warriach and Fida Hussain have taken oath as minister for the first time.

Chief Secretary Punjab Kamran Ali Afzal, Inspector General of Police Punjab Faisal Shahkar, members of Provincial Assembly, Secretary Information Punjab Mansoor Ahmed, and a large number of dignitaries were present at the ceremony.

Meanwhile, Speaker Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Pervez Elahi has said that the ship-sized Punjab cabinet is a blatant violation of the Supreme Court’s decision. “One person out of three has been made a minister”, he said in a statement here.

He said that the oath of the Punjab cabinet was no less than a joke. Elahi said the trustee chief minister was making a mockery of the Supreme Court order by giving ministries. “Even the swearing-in of the Punjab cabinet and its huge size cannot save these rulers who are guilty of unconstitutional actions and should also be held in contempt of court.