PML-N lawmaker seeks details of SAPMs' qualifications

Also ask govt to explain criteria to appoint PM's special assistants and advisers

ISLAMABAD:

An opposition lawmaker has sought details of educational qualifications of the advisers and special assistants to the prime minister (SAPMs) as well as the criteria for appointment of such aides.

PML-N's Mohsin Nawaz Ranjha on Wednesday submitted some questions in the National Assembly with regard to these non-elected cabinet members, days after the government revealed that a number of these SAPMs and advisers have either dual nationalities or a permanent residence in a foreign country.

“The prime minister needs experts' opinion and it was time to see the experts' expertise in the relevant fields. It is essential to see the competence of the non-elected people and how they are suitable for the relevant tasks,” Ranjha said while talking to The Express Tribune.

He said though they cannot run ministries, many of the advisers and assistants have been given the status of a minister as well. He asked the division to state the educational qualifications of the SAPMs and adviser while also demanding a detailed report to be submitted in this regard to parliament.

“Has the government carried out verification of the degrees and foreign certification of above mentioned members of cabinet from HEC [Higher Education Commission] and their respective foreign institutes?”

He also sought criteria for appointment of an individual as an SAPM and adviser to the PM.

In an unprecedented move on July 18, the government went public with the details about assets and nationalities of the advisers and the special assistants – bringing to light that seven of them were either dual nationals or held another country's permanent residency.

The details of their assets and nationalities were put up on the website of the cabinet division. Subsequently, Minister for Information Shibli Faraz tweeted that the information was made public on the instruction of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The move had come in response to growing criticism and calls for declaring the assets of the people close to the prime minister and privy to the developments taking place in the cabinet meetings.

The opposition parties, however, launched a broadside against the PTI-led federal government for appointing SAPMs holding dual nationalities and permanent residency of other countries despite PM Imran Khan's stance in the past that such individuals should not run government affairs.

In the past, PPP Senator Sherry Rehman said, PM Imran had repeatedly opposed government aides, advisers and ministers who had sworn an oath of allegiance to another country.

“What happened to #MadeinPakistan?" she wrote on Twitter.

Sindh government spokesperson Murataza Wahab had also described the presence of individuals with dual nationalities in the federal cabinet a “security risk”.