ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has decided to remove Hafeez Sheikh as finance minister and also mulling over reshuffling his cabinet in light of the performance of federal ministers.
According to sources, Hamad Azhar will be the new finance minister. Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz is likely to be given the portfolio of Petroleum Ministries, sources said. Reshuffling of SAPMs is also on the cards, the sources privy to the development said.
Meanwhile, Azhar said he was “honoured to be entrusted with the additional charge of finance” by Prime Minister Imran.
He said the country’s economy had made “significant gains towards stabilization” since the PTI came to power in 2018. “We shall continue to consolidate these gains and strengthen the growth momentum,” he tweeted.
“We navigated economic fallout of covid-19 fairly well. The world is witnessing supply chain disruptions & a rise in food prices. We shall endeavor to protect our ppl from these shocks,” he added.
We navigated econ fallout of covid-19 fairly well. The world is witnessing supply chain disruptions & rise in food prices. We shall endeavour to protect our ppl from these shocks.
With hard work & integrity, we will InshAllah build Naya Pakistan under leadership of @ImranKhanPTI
— Hammad Azhar (@Hammad_Azhar) March 29, 2021
Adviser on Finance Abdul Hafeez Shaikh was made the finance minister back in December 2020. He was sworn in as the federal minister in the wake of the Islamabad High Court’s December 7 ruling that held that unelected advisers and special assistants could not head government’s committees. The court had set aside a notification regarding the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP) headed by Dr Shaikh.
According to the clause, nine of Article 91 of the Constitution, “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.”
Earlier, PTI fielded Hafeez Shaikh from Islamabad for Senate seat, however; the party had suffered a setback when he lost a seat from Islamabad to a joint candidate of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) Yousuf Raza Gilani.
