Prime Minister Imran Khan Friday reshuffled his cabinet, changing the portfolios of his government’s key ministers and appointing Shaukat Fayaz Tareen as a new minister for finance and revenue.
Tareen, the second former PPP lawmaker picked as the finance minister, has replaced PTI’s recently appointed finance minister Hammad Azhar, who has now been given the portfolio of energy. Tareen earlier served as the finance minister in former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s cabinet from 2009-2010.
Former energy minister Omar Ayub Khan has now been appointed as the minister of economic affairs, whereas Khusro Bakhtiar has been given the charge of industries and production. Shibli Faraz, who was serving as the minister for information and broadcasting, has been given the charge of science and technology, replacing Fawad Chaudhry, who has been appointed minister for information and broadcasting.
Last month, Prime Minister Imran Khan had removed then finance minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh and given the portfolio to Minister for Industries Hammad Azhar as an additional charge. Reports had emerged earlier this month that the government had made an offer to Tareen to join the federal cabinet as special assistant or adviser to the PM, but he had linked his joining the federal cabinet with the decision on an accountability reference that he has been facing for nearly a decade. He had said he would not accept the offer, which he claimed had been made for a second time, unless a case against him filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was disposed of.
The new finance minister is a cousin of senior PTI leader Jehangir Tareen, who is also facing inquiries in the sugar scandal of the present government.
Following the cabinet reshuffle, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said as information minister, his task would be to change misperceptions about Pakistan and highlight vibrant efforts of the government for making a ‘Naya Pakistan’. The minister, in a tweet, said he was grateful to Prime Minister Imran Khan for providing him an opportunity to work as Minister for Science and Technology. He said that one ministry which can change the fate of Pakistan is the Ministry of Science and Technology. He expressed the hope that in future, the Ministry of Information Technology would be merged in the Ministry of Science and Technology and the government would make a super effort to change Pakistan into a hub of knowledge economy.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Senator Shibli Faraz congratulated Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on his appointment as Minister for Information and Broadcasting. In a tweet, he said he would continue to support Fawad on the initiatives started by him in the ministry during his tenure as minister for information. He thanked Prime Minister Imran Khan for entrusting him with the Ministry of Science and Technology, which had great potential.
Opposition party PML-N also criticised Prime Minister Imran Khan’s decision to reshuffle the federal cabinet, saying it proves the premier has ‘failed at his job’. “In less than three years, this is the fourth finance minister to take up the portfolio,” said PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s spokesperson, Muhammad Zubair.
Zubair said the prime minister has yet again changed his team, adding that it proved he had failed at his job. Pointing out that the prime minister relived Hammad Azhar from the Ministry of Finance and did the same to Omar Ayub after taking the charge of the Ministry of Energy from him, he said these were only ‘temporary changes’. “No improvements will come about due to these [changes],” he said.