House Leader in Senate Shibli Faraz is Firdous Ashiq Awan Replacement

ISLAMABAD: House Leader in Senate Syed Shibli Faraz is the Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan replacement, who headed the ministry for a one-year period in his capacity as PM’s Executive Assistants.

Former General Director ISPR Lt Gen (R) Asim Saleem Bajwa was also named Special Adjunctive to PM for information and broadcasting. Thus, the information ministry will officially have two members of its cabinet to take over after PTI established its coalition with its allies in 2018.

In April last year Dr Firdous succeeded Ch Fawad Hussain, who was federal information minister for less than one year. The dropped PM Special Assistant responded to this sudden development with a range of charges against her in the media, especially the social media, and she strongly refused.

Senator Shibli, a gentle spokesperson, is the son of influential poet Ahmad Faraz to make way for the federal government. The Senator of PTI, Muhammad Azam Swati, is now in power with Senator Barrister Farogh Naseem.

A note from the Cabinet Division confirms that the Prime Minister has been delighted, on the grounds of information and broadcasting, to withdraw Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan from the PM Special Advisor Office. The main improvement occurred in the background of the widely debated wheat and sugar crises less than 3 weeks after a significant changeover was carried out in cabinets.

It is noteworthy that Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Ch Fawad Hussain, announced this important creation, who, by tweeting Shibli Faraz, was a genuinely dignified individual and brilliant Asim Saleem Bajwa and wishing them a good and strong team.

In March 2015 Senator Shibli was elected from Khybers Pakhtunhwa to the Senate and in August 2018 he was voted Leader of the Chamber. He headed the treasury in the House, where a decisive majority of the united opposition was held.

He is the Chairman of the Standing Finance Committee of the Senate, as well as a separate circular debt commission, which formerly acted as a banker. Moreover, in addition to being a member of a high-profile CPEC Legislative Commission, Senator Shibli is a member of the House Standing Committee on Strategy, Development and Changes, Water Management and Climate Change.

It is also not clear whether his difficult duties in the opposition, which is dominated as Leader of the House in the Senate, would be relieved or not.

Asim Bajwa, the recently named Special Assistant, was the General Manager of Public Relations Inter-Services from 2012 to 2016 and has been in friendly ties with the media throughout his tenure. In November last year the PTI government retired from command and became Chairman of the CPEC Jurisdiction.After the Firdous Ashiq Awan Replacement, the new cabinet members list at 50 of 27 federal ministers, five counselors, four state ministers and 14 special assistants.