Daily Times

The president on the advice of the prime minister has approved appointment of Brigadier (r) Ejaz Shah as federal minister, according to a notification issued on Thursday.

Brig (r) Shah will hold the parliamentary affairs portfolio. He is a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MNA elected from the constituency of NA-118, Nankana Sahib-II.

A political controversy is likely to trigger over Shah’s appointment, as he had been a trusted aide of former president Pervez Musharraf. He has also served as director general of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) from 2004 to 2008, and has been accused of using the IB for political victimisation. Reacting to the development, Pakistan People’s Party Secretary Information Dr Nafisa Shah strongly criticized the appointment of Brig (r) Shah as federal minister.

“A person accused in the murder of Benazir Bhutto has been made a federal minister, which amounts to protecting a killer,” she said in a statement, adding that during Pervez Musharraf’s rule, Shah had been massively involved in political engineering. “Benazir Bhutto had said in an email that if she is assassinated, Ejaz Shah must be probed about her murder,” she recalled. PPP’s Deputy Secretary Information Palwasha Khan said appointment of Ejaz Shah as federal minister is a negation of the National Action Plan (NAP) as “making a facilitator of the terrorists a federal minister is like shelving the NAP.” She said that getting Shah elected as member of National Assembly through ‘fraudulent’ elections is tantamount to disrespecting the parliament.