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PTI Senator Resigns for Shaukat Tarin’s Election to Senate

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Muhammad Ayub Afridi resigned from the upper house of parliament on Tuesday, reportedly in a bid to make way for Prime Minister’s Finance Adviser, Shaukat Tarin, to become a member of parliament.

The resignation letter of the PTI leader was approved by the Senate Chairman, Sadiq Sanjrani, according to a notification issued by the Senate Secretariat.

In a video message from the parliament, Afridi said he was asked by Prime Minister Imran Khan to resign. He added that the seat was entrusted to him by the party and the premier, and he has returned it happily.

The move is being seen as an attempt by the government to get Shaukat Tarin elected to Senate on the seat vacated by Afridi to ensure he can become the finance minister again.

Tarin was appointed as the finance minister back in April, and his constitutional tenure ended in October, after which he was appointed as PM’s finance adviser. As an adviser, he cannot chair meetings of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) or other cabinet committee meetings as per a high court ruling.

According to the Constitution, to continue as the finance minister for longer than six months, Tarin needed to be elected to parliament.

It is pertinent to mention here that the government had previously tried to get former finance minister, Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, elected to the Senate in March’s Senate elections. However, Shaikh lost to the joint opposition candidate Yousuf Raza Gilani.

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Published by
Umer Tariq