Pak PM Abbasi expands cabinet, appoints 5 special assistants

Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Tuesday appointed five special assistants to further enlarge his already big cabinet.

According to a statement, the new assistants include barrister Zafarullah Khan, Mussadiq Malik, Muftah Ismail, Asif Kirmani and Khawaja Zaheer.

The appointments came just days after Abbasi appointed Sartaj Aziz, Mehtab Abbasi, Amir Muqam, Irfan Siddiqui and Jam Mashooq Ali as advisers.

With the new induction, Abbasi's cabinet has grown to 57 members, including ministers, ministers of state, advisors and special assistants. The cabinet may further swell as Tariq Fatimi, Shujaat Azeem, Haroon Akhtar Khan and Sharjeel Adnan Sheikh who were advisors and assistants of Sharif may also be included.

It appears that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz wants to award senior members ahead of election which are scheduled to be held in the middle of next year.

Abbasi, 58, was sworn-in as Pakistan's 18th prime minister on August 1 after the Supreme Court disqualified the incumbent Nawaz Sharif for dishonesty following the Panama papers scandal.

He was initially PML-N's candidate for interim prime minister and Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif was to take over after a period of 45 days. However, the decision was reserved later on.

Abbasi will be occupying the office till the remaining tenure of PML-N, until mid 2018.