PM Shehbaz adds four more special assistants to federal cabinet

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday appointed four Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) parliamentarians to the federal cabinet.

With the latest additions, the cabinet will swell to a whopping 51 members. The previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had a cabinet which had completed its ‘half-century’ of members as well.

The new cabinet members include Muhammad Junaid Anwar, Hafiz Abdul Karim, Sheikh Fayyaz-ud-Din and Romina Khurshid Alam. They will join the federal cabinet been appointed as special assistants to the prime minister, SAMAA TV reported on Wednesday.

These members will enjoy privileges and powers equivalent to Ministers of State.

Anwar will head the Prime Minister’s Complaint Cell while Sheikh Fayyaz-ud-Din has been appointed as the coordinator for South Punjab.

Talking to SAMAA TV, Anwar thanked PM Shehbaz for his “confidence” in appoint him as a special assistant. He pledged to fulfill his assigned duties with “diligence and sincerity”.

“I will fully try to address public complaints from all over Pakistan,” he added.

PM Shehbaz’s 51-member federal cabinet includes 34 federal ministers, four state ministers and three advisers, and now eight special assistants as per the National Assembly website.

Of these, 14 ministers are from the PML-N, nine from the coalition partner Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), four from the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F), two from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), and one each from the JWP and BAP.

Earlier, Syed Tariq Fatemi, Mohammad Sadiq, Syed Fahad Hussain and Shaza Fatima were appointed as PM’s special assistants.