PESHAWAR, Sept 3: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led government on Tuesday appointed 31 treasury members as parliamentary secretaries and two more special assistants to the chief minister raising the overall tally of the cabinet and allied office holders to 56 in the province.

The government has already appointed five advisers and five special assistant to the chief minister apart from 13-member cabinet.

Appointment of advisers, special assistant and 31 parliamentary secretaries has put a question mark on the coalition government`s austerity plan in the resource strapped province.

However Chief Minister`s Spokesman Shiraz Paracha clarified in a statement that chief minister had yet to decide about additional perks and privileges to the parliamentary secretaries and termed their appointment according to the rules.

`These parliamentary secretaries will work under the supervision of the concerned ministers and will defend government`s policies in the assembly in the absence of the ministers,` he said, adding that parliamentary secretaries had been appointed to reduce workload on the ministers.

An official handout issuedhere said that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor on the advice of the chief minister appointed MPAs Suron Singh and Abdul Karim as special assistants. Another handout said that Chief Minister Pervez Khattak appointed 31 MPAs of the PTI and its coalition partners as parliamentary secretaries.

The MPAs who have been appointed as parliamentary secretaries belong to PTI and its coalition partners including Jamaat-i-Islami, Quami Watan Party, Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan and the lone independent lawmaker Javid Akbar Khan from Tank district.

According to the handout 10 female lawmakers are also among the parliamentary secretaries.

The PTI government had already drawn criticism from the opposition side for inducting advisers and special assistants in the government and had termed such appointments against the spirit of the 18th constitution amendment.

Under Article 130(6) of the Constitution the cabinet shall be collectively responsible to the provincial assembly and the total strength of the cabinet shall not exceed 15 members or eleven per cent of the total membership of a provincialassembly.

In addition, clause 11 of the said article stated that the chief minister shall not appoint more than five advisers, but there is no such provision about appointment of the special assistants to the chief minister.

However the government has defended appointment of special assistants and stated that they had been inducted under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Advisers and Special Assistants to the Chief Minister (Appointment) Act, 1989.

Reacting to the induction of the special assistants and parliamentary secretaries Pakistan Muslim League-N MPA Wajeh uz Zaman Khan said that Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had offered lollypop to appease his MPAs and coalition partners. He said the chief minister made appointments following reports about internal rifts within the PTI and coalition partners.

`This is unprecedented in the parliamentary history of the province to appoint an army of MPAs as parliamentary secretaries,` he remarked, `this is very unfortunate and against the spirit of the Constitution.` He said that there were reports about rifts within the PTI and the chief minister mighttake this move to appease disgruntled elements.

There were rumours that a forward block was in the offing in PTI while Jamaat-iIslami chief Syed Munawar Hassan had also expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of the provincial government. On the other hand, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman is also issuing statements that the PTI-led government is on the verge of collapse.

A provincial minister requesting anonymity said that Maulana Rehman`s statements might have scared the chief minister and appointed record numbers of MPAs as parliamentary secretaries, advisers and special assistants.

`On the one hand, government is continuously issuing circulars to bureaucracy to take austerity measures while on the other hand entire treasury members have been appointed as ministers, advisers, assistants and parliamentary secretary thus not leaving any private member on the treasury side.

He added that it appears the provincial government had been following the Balochistan model where all the treasury members were in the provincial cabinet of Nawab Aslam Raisani.