The Federal Government has reportedly decided to replace Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh and appoint the current Federal Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar as the new Federal Finance Minister.
Abdul Hafeez Sheikh is an economist and politician who has served as Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Affairs since 11 December 2020. Previously, he served as an advisor to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue from April 2019 to December 2020.
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Muhammad Hammad Azhar has held his current portfolio since 6 April 2020. Previously, he served as Federal Minister for Economic Affairs from 10 July 2019 till 5 April 2020.
Hafeez had been serving as an advisor to the prime minister on finance before he was appointed the Federal Minister. He was given the portfolio of Federal Ministry after the Islamabad High Court ruled that unelected advisors and special assistants can not head government committees.
Though Hafeez is not an elected member of Parliament, according to Article 91 (9) of the Constitution, any individual who is not part of the Parliament can be a minister for six months. However, to become a minister again, the unelected member should be elected to one of the two Houses of Parliament.
After his appointment, according to the constitution, he had a period of six months to be elected as a member of the assembly. For that purpose, the ruling party, PTI chose Hafeez as a candidate for Senate elections, which he could not bag. After his loss in the senate elections, his departure from the ministry was only a matter of time. Now it appears that the government has chosen Hammad Azhar as his replacement.
According to news reports, there were also some grievances among other ministers on taxation and the bill granting autonomy to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
The prime minister reportedly conveyed to the finance minister to step down from his role, and a notification in this regard is also expected to be released soon.
This is a developing story.
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