ISLAMABAD: Leader of the House in Senate, Senator Shibli Faraz has been appointed as new information minister of the country, while Lt Gen (retired) Asim Saleem Bajwa has been appointed as special assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on information.
“The Prime Minister has been pleased to appoint Lt Gen (Retd) Asim Saleem Bajwa as special assistant to the Prime Minister on information and broadcasting, in [an] honorary capacity, with immediate effect,” a notification issued by the Cabinet Division said.
A second notification read: “The Prime Minister has been pleased to remove Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan from the office of special assistant to the prime minister on information and broadcasting, with immediate effect.”
The announcement was first made by Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, who earlier held the information portfolio.
The reason for the changes announced was not immediately clear. It also remains unclear whether or not Awan will be assigned another portfolio.
Faraz, a former banker, is chairman of the Senate’s standing committee on commerce and special committee on circular debt. He is also a member of the committee on planning and development and reforms, water resources, statistics, and climate change and a member of the parliamentary committee on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. He did masters in international relations from the University de Los Andes (Colombia) in 1994.
Lt Gen (retired) Bajwa had served as Commander Southern Command before his retirement. He remained the director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) from 2012 to 2016.
In November 2019, Bajwa was appointed by the government as the chairman of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority (CPECA), which comes under the planning and development ministry. – TLTP
