'Unaware' Imran Khan expresses reservations over Punjab cabinet's expansion

• PTI chief objects to Punjab cabinet's expansion.
• Khan told Kastro he didn't know about his appointment as minister.
• Kastro takes oath as minister in ceremony attended by CM Elahi.

A senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Wednesday shared an objection with the party’s chairman Imran Khan after another PTI member Khayal Ahmad Kastro was included in the Punjab cabinet, sources told Geo News.

It was learnt through the sources that Khan was not aware of the cabinet’s expansion and the new ministerial appointment.

The senior leader, addressing Khan, expressed his displeasure at the development and said that the expansion should have not taken place, as per the sources.

Khan, when responding to his party’s member, said that he was not aware of Kastro becoming a minister. “I thought you were being given a department to head,” he said speaking to the new provincial minister.

According to the sources, the PTI chief told Kastro that while the development is not problematic but his becoming a minister has damaged the party’s narrative.

Punjab Governor Baligh-ur-Rehman administered Kastro’s oath as the provincial minister during which Chief Minister Parvez Elahi was also present.

It should be noted that the province's cabinet expansion — particularly with the appointment of a new minister from the Khan-led party — comes at a time when the PTI is pressurising the Centre to conduct snap polls by no more than end of March. The party has been insisting on dissolution of the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies if elections not held on their choice of date.

Meanwhile, the federal government has said that the polls won't take place until October 2023. CM Elahi, too, earlier said that he did not see elections taking place in the next four months.

In an interview with a private news channel, he said: "Elections cannot be held before four months; the federal and provincial governments need time to work and the elections may be delayed even after October next year."