Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: As per major reshuffle in the Federal Cabinet, Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed on Friday has been appointed as Federal Minister for Interior.

According to details, Azam Khan Swati has been made Federal Minister for Railways while Ijaz Shah will serve as Federal Minister for Narcotics Control from now.

Rashid has been replaced by Azam Swati as the railways minister while retired Brig Ijaz Ahmed Shah, who earlier held the interior ministry portfolio, has been appointed as minister for narcotics control.

This is the fourth federal cabinet shakeup in less than three years of the PTI government.

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.

This the fourth federal cabinet reshuffle since the PTI government came into power three years ago.

The move comes days after a division bench comprising Justice Aamir Farooq and Justice Ghulam Azam Qambrani of the Islamabad High Court ruled that the prime minister’s advisors and special assistants have no executive authority vested in them to chair or become members of cabinet committees.

The judgment noted that Article 93 of the Constitution allows the prime minister to appoint up to five advisors and conferring of a federal minister status on an advisor is “only for the purpose of perks and privileges” and “does not make the advisor a federal minister as such”.