In just a week after Pakistan’s new cabinet took oath, the prime minister has replaced Dr. Musadiq Masood Malik with Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari as the minister of power, a cabinet division notification said earlier.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif picked a 19-member federal cabinet last week which comprises loyalists of the Sharif family, veteran politicians, former ministers, and only one woman.
Malik, who served as petroleum minister during the last Sharif government and has previously also served as a special assistant to the prime minister on water and power, was appointed the minister of petroleum, with additional charge of power. Leghari was giving the railways portfolio.
Over the weekend, the cabinet division released a notification saying Malik would continue as petroleum minister while Leghari would now run the power ministry, without specifying the reason for the change.
The statement reads: “The Prime Minister has been pleased to assign the portfolio (business of Government) of Power to Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari in place of the portfolio of Railways, thus relieving Mr. Musadiq Mosood Malik, Federal Minister for Petroleum, of the additional portfolio of power.”
Leghari is a former lawmaker who served as a member of Pakistan’s National Assembly from 2002-07, 2011-13 and 2013-18. His father, Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari, was Pakistan’s president from 1993-97.
Pakistan’s new government is facing the daunting task of managing a stuttering economy. The cash-strapped nation of 241 million has grappled with an Feb. 8 general election that delayed the formation of a coalition government until new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was sworn in earlier this month.
Sharif has asked his government to open talks with the IMF for a new bailout program after clearing a current $3 billion stand-by arrangement, the final review of which ends this day.
