Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin will take up the issue of his election as a senator with Prime Minister Imran Khan. The deadline to elect him as a lawmaker is expiring next month.

The six months’ time limit for electing the finance minister as a member of parliament will expire on October 16, 2021.

Sources privy to the matter said that Shaukat Tarin has decided to take up this matter with the prime minister. He wants to end rumours and uncertainty about his future.

If the government decides not to elect him Senator till the deadline, he will have to become an adviser to the PM on Finance. In such a scenario, the government will have to choose a political face for this key position.

Number of Finance Ministers over the last three years

Four finance ministers have been changed in the last three years of the PTI.

Someone asked about his fate as the time limit for electing him a member of parliament is nearing. Shaukat Tarin replied that he was going nowhere. He had full faith that PM Imran Khan would elect him Senator. Sources close to Tarin say that he has decided to take up this issue with the premier.

The minister also confirmed to this scribe that he was scheduled to visit Washington DC. He will attend the annual meeting of the IMF/World Bank from Oct 12, 2021. Now the government would have to elect him before his departure for attending IMF/WB meetings outside the country.

The government had de-seated Ishaq Dar. It wanted to elect Tarin to this vacant seat but the matter had ended up in the court.

Now the government will have to vacate any seat from the Punjab, KP or Sindh but so far no decision has been known. Shaukat Tarin’s close aides said that he might be elected to the Senate in the first 10 days of October.