Noor-ud-doha Farooqui
Their is the news that Azad Kashmir’s Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas is facing severe difficulties in forming his cabinet. Various members are demanding ministries in the form of assembly groups. Eleven members of the Assembly belong to President Barrister Sultan Mahmood’s group. It should be noted that under the Thirteenth Amendment, the Azad Kashmir cabinet can have 16 ministers, two advisers and one special assistant, meaning that the cabinet can have a total of 19 members.Generally, the advisers and special assistants were unelected people, but under Sardar Qayyum Niazi, these three posts were also given to the elected members of the Assembly and no unelected person was made a member of the cabinet.The members who doesn’t got any ministries last time(Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi tenure) want to become ministers in the government of Sardar Tanveer Ilyas in any case, but due to the 13th amendment the Prime Minister is not in a position to fulfill the wishes of these members though Sardar Tanveer Ilyas himself wants that One or two people should be included in the cabinet who were not included last time but due to this new grouping of members of the assembly he is not in a position to do so.He is facing the most difficulties from the Speaker of the Assembly Chaudhry Anwar-ul-Haq who wants to leave the Speakership and get a portfolio of senior minister while some sources claim that Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas promised senior ministry to Barrister Sultan’s son. And some sources are claiming that he keeps the same promise with Khawaja Farooq Ahmed.In addition, it has been revealed that 11 members of Barrister Sultan’s group in the assembly, including his brother and son, have taken oath on the Qur’an for ministries together. The group demands that not only all members be made ministers, The previous ministries should also be restored otherwise no member will take oath.It remains to be seen whether Sardar Tanveer Ilyas will be able to allay the concerns of this group or whether they will be given some more money to atone for the oath they have taken on the Holy Qur’an so that they can pay the expiation.In addition,their is another senerio that the 15th Amendment should be passed as soon as possible to remove the restriction on the number of ministries and to make all members ministers, but for this the government would also need the support of the opposition members.Some sources are claiming that the opposition members who have given up the sweetness of the change of Prime Minister have given the green signal to the Prime Minister to do this in exchange for more sweets. Now it remains to be seen what the Prime Minister does.
