Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif this week appointed eight more special assistants for himself.

With the eight new special assistants to the prime minister (SAPM), the cabinet now consists of 34 federal ministers, including one without a portfolio, seven ministers of state, four advisers to the PM and 25 SAPMs.

According to the notification, the Premier was “pleased” to appoint MNA Iftikhar Ahmed Khan Babar, MNA Maahr Irshad Ahmad Khan, MNA Raza Rabani Khar, MNA Mahesh Kumar Malani, Faisal Karim Kundi, Sardar Saleem Haider, Tasneem Ahmed Qureshi and Mohammad Ali Shah Bacha on the post of SAPM.

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Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former Prime Minister Imran Khan had a 52-member federal cabinet, including 25 federal ministers, four ministers of state, four advisers and 19 SAPMs.

PTI’s Senior Vice-President Fawad Chaudhry criticized PM Shehbaz for adding eight more members to his cabinet.

“People are drowning in the quagmire of inflation and the imported government is increasing the army of cabinet members. Eight new non-important members have been added unnecessarily to the cabinet and this is an expression of the priorities of the Shehbaz Sharif government,” said Fawad while talking to The Nation.

Chaudhry claimed that the back of the country’s economy had been broken and the middle class was shedding tears on monthly expenses while, at the same time, the “imported government” was playing the flute, like Nero.

“It is a necessary evil in parliamentary systems, especially, when governments are based on a coalition,” said the president of Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT), Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, while talking to The Express Tribune.