Erstwhile Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance, Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, was sworn in as a Federal Minister by President Dr. Arif Alvi on Friday.
The ceremony took place at the President House in Islamabad. Shaikh assumed office as the SAPM on April 20, 2019. Now his appointment as a Federal Minister follows a verdict of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) that deemed the inclusion of advisors and special assistants in cabinet committees illegal.
On December 7, the IHC ruled that special assistants and advisers to the prime minister were not members of the cabinet and, therefore, cannot be part of cabinet proceedings.
Sources told ProPakistani that Prime Minister, Imran Khan, is also likely to appoint Advisor to PM on Commerce and Investment, Abdul Razzak Dawood, and Special Assistant to PM on National Health Services, Dr. Faisal Sultan, as federal ministers as well.
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With regards to the constitutional legitimacy of such a move, Article 91(9) of the Constitution empowers the prime minister to appoint an unelected individual as a minister, with a condition that such an appointee needs to contest and win elections within six months period of appointment.
The statement of the article says that unless the appointee wins the election within six months of the appointment, then the individual will “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.”
Sources familiar with the power corners are saying that Shaikh, Dawood, and Sultan will most likely be given Senate tickets for the upcoming elections in March 2021, which will fulfill the constitutional requirement.
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