Imran Khan's Cabinet: New Pakistan PM's ministers include India hawks, remnants of Pervez Musharraf era

Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan has announced his Cabinet comprising 21 members, many of whom had previously held key posts in the regime of former military dictator Pervez Musharraf. Out of the 21 names announced, 16 will be ministers while five others will perform their duties as advisers to the prime minister, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) spokesman Fawad Chaudhry said on Saturday. Here are some of the prominent ministers in the Cabinet: Shah Mahmood Qureshi, foreign minister: Vice-president of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Shah Mehmood Qureshi , who won Multan’s NA-156 seat by defeating rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Amir Saeed Ansari with 93,497 votes, became the country’s latest foreign minister. Born in Murree, Qureshi was a member of the Pakistan National Assembly from 2002 to 2018 and had been the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan between 2008 to 2011. The seasoned politician has had experience in serving three leading political parties of Pakistan since 1986, even though he had started his career by being selected to the Provincial Assembly of Pakistan on a non-party basis during the regime of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. [caption id=“attachment_4822231” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of PTI leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi.Twitter@@SMQureshiPTI[/caption] A decade ago, Qureshi had held the post of the foreign minister and back then, he was keen on maintaining peace with neighbouring countries, including India. Following the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, Qureshi was sympathetic to an India eager for justice but he was clear on his warning against war. “We do not want to impose war, but we are fully prepared in case war is imposed on us,” he had said. Pervaiz Khattak, defence minister: Pakistan’s new defence minister Pervaiz Khattak had served as the Khyber Pakhtunwa chief minister from 2013 to 2018. Khattak was elected the chief minister with four votes, defeating his rival from JUI-F Maulana Luftur Rehman who had procured three votes. He led a coalition government with PTI as the leading party while Jamaat-e-Islami and Awami Jamhuri Ittehad Pakistan were also a part of it. He has also been the Minister of Industries and Labour twice. Khattak has held reformist views of politics in Pakistan and as a central leader of PTI was involved in a foul language case during the campaigns for Pakistan elections, Daily Pakistan reported. Khattak, like Qureshi, had served as a minister in the past in Pakistan Peoples’ Party government. Asad Umer, finance minister: Asad Umer who bagged the portfolio of finance in Khan’s Cabinet, is the son of former Lieutenant General Mohammad Umer who was part of the Pakistan Army during the 1971 war with India. Born in Rawalpindi in 1961, Umer was a banker with HSBC before he became the senior vice-president of PTI in 2012. A year later, he became a member of the National Assembly in 2013. Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, railway minister: Sheikh Rashid from Rawalpindi has been appointed as the railway minister. He previously held the same portfolio under the Musharraf regime. A graduate from Gordon College, Ahmed had his first brush with politics in college when he was rebelling against the military regime of Ayub Khan. He became a part of the National Assembly in 1985 as an Independent candidate and was known to be a close aide of Musharraf. Having had a taste of different parties, Ahmed joined the PTI in 2012. Apart from these prominent faces, three women including Shireen Mazari, Zubaida Jalal and Fehmida Mirza are also part of Khan’s Cabinet. The five advisors who have status of ministers include known faces like former banker Ishrat Hussain, businessman Abdul Razzak Dawood and Babar Awan. Meanwhile, there are a few Cabinet members who served under Musharraf in various capacities include Farogh Naseem, Tariq Bashir Cheema, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Zubaida Jalal, Fawad Chaudhury, Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Shafqat Mehmood, Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Abdul Razak Dawood, Dr Ishrat Hussain and Amin Aslam. With inputs from PTI