Staff Reporter
Islamabad
In a significant cabinet reshuffle, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday changed the portfolios of three ministers and appointed Abdul Hafeez Shaikh as the Minister of Finance. Meanwhile, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has been given the portfolio of the Ministry of Interior.
While Ijaz Shah, who held the post of interior minister, has been given the Ministry of Narcotics Control. Ministry of Railways, formerly led by Rashid Ahmed, has been given to Azam Khan Swati.
Furthermore, Adviser on Finance Abdul Hafeez Shaikh took oath as a federal minister earlier in the day. President Arif Alvi administered oath to Abdul Hafeez Shaikh at the President House.
The former adviser was elevated as a federal minister after the Islamabad High Court’s verdict on inclusion of advisors and special assistants in cabinet committees.
Sheikh was made a federal minister under the Article 91(9) of the Constitution. The clause bestows the prime minister with the power to appoint unelected individuals as ministers for six months.
The reshuffle comes days after the Islamabad High Court ruled that unelected advisers and special assistants could not head government’s committees and had subsequently set aside the notification of the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation, headed by Hafeez.
The move was seen as a major blow to government’s privatisation efforts that were being spearheaded by unelected members of the federal cabinet.
Though Hafeez is not an elected member of Parliament, according to Article 91 (9) of the Constitution, any individual who is not part of the Parliament can be a minister for six months. In order to become a minister again, the unelected member should be elected to the National Assembly. “A minister who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of the National Assembly shall, at the expiration of that period, cease to be a minister and shall not before the dissolution of that Assembly be again appointed a minister unless he is elected a member of that Assembly,” reads Article 91 (9). Newly-appointed Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed on Friday announced to give permission to the opposition alliance-Pakistan Democratic Party (PDM)- to hold a public gathering at Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore on December 13. “There is no restriction from the government on PDM to hold a public gathering in Lahore,” said Shiekh Rasheed. Speaking to media after getting the new responsibility, the interior minister said that efforts were afoot to create anarchy in the country and foreign funding is being funneled in the country .
