ISLAMABAD: In a surprise move, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday replaced his special assistant on information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan with retired Lt Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa and appointed Leader of the House in the Senate Shibli Faraz as federal minister for information and broadcasting — a position that has been lying vacant for almost a year.

The notification regarding Dr Firdous Ashiq’s removal from the position of the special assistant to the PM “with immediate effect” was issued by the cabinet division minutes after she left the PM Office after attending a meeting on the Covid-19 situation presided over by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The appointments of Mr Faraz and Mr Bajwa were first confirmed by federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry, who had served as the first information minister of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government after the party had been declared successful in the July 2018 general elections. Since Dr Awan’s appointment as the Special Assistant to Prime Minister in April last year, the information ministry was functioning without a federal minister.

This is for the third time in the 20-month PTI’s rule that the prime minister has made changes in his media team that also comprises a couple of spokespersons.

Shibli made information minister; retired Lt Gen Bajwa replaces Firdous

“Truly an honorable and dignified man Shibli Faraz has been appointed new information minister of Pak, and a brilliant Asim Bajwa (has been) appointed as SAPM on information. Both will make a great team.... all the best,” said Mr Chaudhry through his official social media account on Twitter soon after the development.

Retired Lt Gen Bajwa has been working as the chairman of the newly-established China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority since November last year and it is not clear whether he would relinquish this office after getting the responsibility of the SAPM on information or would continue to hold it with his new position.

He had earlier in the day posted some pictures on Twitter receiving medical and relief equipment from China. “Receiving one of the three planes that delivered Covid-19 related medical equipment donated by China. Three gorges weighing 13 tons is the largest donation by a business enterprise. Thank you for standing by us in this testing time. Long live Pak-China friendship and CPEC,” says the caption of the picture written by Mr Bajwa.

Retired Lt Gen Bajwa had served as Commander of Southern Command before his retirement. He also remained director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) from 2012 to 2016.

Talking to Dawn after his nomination as the federal information minister, Shibli Faraz said his “intentions and endeavours will be to bring the ministry in step with the changing time and current needs of the country.”

Without elaborating, Mr Faraz said the information ministry had always been run in a “certain fixed pattern” without keeping in mind the requirements of the present time.

“We will have to re-invent it and bring it in line with the needs and requirements both in terms of projecting the government’s viewpoint and dissemination of information,” Mr Faraz said, adding that all this would be done on scientific basis.

Moreover, he said, his ministry’s next priority would be to present the “soft and positive image” of the country at the international level.

Senator Faraz refused to give a reply to a question as to who would replace him as Leader of the House in the Senate.

However, the sources in the ruling PTI said the prime minister had so far made no decision regarding the nomination of a new leader of the house and for the time being, Mr Faraz would continue to work in both positions. They said under the laws and the Constitution, a person could keep both the offices simultaneously.

Mr Faraz who had been elected as senator from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the PTI ticket in March 2015 is the son of renowned poet late Ahmed Faraz.

Though the changes in the government’s media team are being reported as a sudden development, sources in the PTI claimed that it was in the offing and they had been expecting it to take place much earlier. The sources said the appointment of Dr Awan as the SAPM had never been welcomed and hailed in the party circles and there was a large group which always considered her an outsider and a “migratory bird”.

The reports that she was not welcomed by the PTI old guards seemed to be correct if assessed in the light of the reaction officially coming out from the party ranks.

Besides Fawad Chaudhry, Human Rights Minister Dr Shireen Mazari also welcomed the change and greeted Mr Faraz for assuming the new responsibility, declaring him “a dignified man” and a PTI face.

“Congratulations Shibli Faraz on becoming information minister — an old PTI member and a dignified man with gravitas. Face of PTI,” Dr Mazari tweeted.

Besides this, the sources said, another reason for Dr Awan’s removal was that the PM had received complaints against her about some alleged irregularities in the affairs of the ministry with respect to the commission in the advertisements and misuse of official staff.

Dr Awan, however, refuted all these allegations and termed them “baseless”. Through a tweet, she said her “motto as a political worker is the development of the country and the welfare of the people which will continue under the leadership of the prime minister.”

In the same tweet, she felicitated both Mr Faraz and retired Lt-Gen Bajwa for assuming the new responsibilities.

Dr Awan also thanked the prime minister for reposing confidence in her, stating that she tried to fulfill her duties using her full capabilities during her one-year tenure.

“It is the prerogative of the prime minister to decide the batting order or the fielding position of a player. I respect his decision,” she wrote.

Hailing from Sialkot, Dr Awan had previously served as a cabinet member in the military regime under dictator Gen Pervez Musharraf and the Pakistan Peoples Party government under president Asif Zardari and she joined the PTI in 2017 only a year before the 2018 general elections. She, however, lost the elections to PML-N’s Armaghan Subhani with a margin of over 37,000 votes.

There are two people who have already been officiating as official spokespersons of the PM Office – Nadeem Afzal Chan and Shahbaz Gill. Previously, late Naeemul Haq had also served as the spokesman for the PM. Former managing director of the Pakistan Television Yousuf Baig Mirza had resigned as SAPM on Media Affairs in November last year, stating that he had resigned as he wanted to return to the media industry.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2020