 "Pakistan")
Consultations for the formation of a Cabinet in Pakistan's Punjab province under Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz have started within the ruling PML-N with her father and party supremo Nawaz Sharif holding talks with allied parties.
In the first phase, a 20-member Cabinet is likely to be formed this week, according to a media report on Wednesday.
The PML-N leadership also held talks with its allied parties PPP, PML-Q and Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP), which are also expected to get ministries in the cabinet in the second phase.
Maryam, 50, is the first woman chief minister of a province in Pakistan's history.
The meeting was chaired by three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who surprisingly nominated his younger brother to be the prime minister when a coalition federal government was formed.
Senior PML-N leaders Rana Sanaullah, Pervaiz Rashid and Marriyum Aurangzeb are expected to be accommodated in the provincial cabinet.
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Sanaullah and Rashid are expected to be inducted as special assistants or advisers to the chief minister, as they are not members of the Punjab Assembly.
Sanaullah, considered close to PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, is expected to get the coveted portfolios of home and law. He served as the provincial law minister in the last tenure of former chief minister Shehbaz Sharif from 2013 to 2018.
Later, he also served as the interior minister in the 16-month stint of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government in the Centre following the ouster of former premier Imran Khan through a no-confidence motion in 2022.
