Hafeez made finance minister, Rashid gets interior in yet another cabinet shakeup

Prime Minister Imran Khan appointed Hafeez Shaikh as the federal minister for finance, while Sheikh Rashid was handed the interior ministry portfolio in yet another cabinet shakeup, Radio Pakistan reported.

Rashid has been replaced by Azam Swati as the railways minister while Ijaz Shah, who earlier held the interior ministry portfolio, has been appointed as minister for narcotics control.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 Shaikh. The move was seen as a major blow to government’s privatisation efforts that were being spearheaded by unelected members of the federal cabinet.

Though Hafeez is not an elected member of the National Assembly, according to Article 91 (9) of the Constitution, any individual who is not part of the Parliament can be a minister for six months. In order to become a minister again, the unelected member should be elected to the Assembly.

“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,” reads Section 9 of Article 91.