Sheikh Rashid Ahmed made Interior Minister
Sheikh Rashid achieves unique milestone of becoming federal minister for a dozen time
Pak Chronicle Report
Islamabad
The darling of media industry, the politician who knows well as how to be in limelight all the time due to all the right reasons, the one and only Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has been made Interior Minister of Pakistan on Friday.
While the felicitations messages continue to pour in for him from all quarters for becoming the interior minister, this is for the 12th time that he is taking charge of a federal ministry.
Sheikh Rashid has already made counting difficult for historians as they need to check it again and again to get the correct figure as for how many times he was made the federal minister. This scribe believes that it is the 12th times that he has been made the federal minister.
The social media is suggesting another figure which is 15 in this respect. Only Sheikh Rashid himself can clarify as how many times he served as the federal minister. Perhaps it’s the world record or at least a Pakistani record on the political landscape of the country.
He has replaced Brigadier (Retired), Ijaz Shah who according to the Interior Ministry had himself requested to be relieved as Interior Minister following the deaths of his brothers and due to his own health related issues.
The President of Pakistan Dr Arif Alvi has congratulated Shiekh Rashid on telephone for becoming the interior minister of Pakistan and expressed hope that he would run the affairs of the ministry on better lines.
“A foresighted politician like you can manage the affairs Ministry of Interior very efficiently,” the president stated in his felicitation message on Friday.
Besides the president other federal minister of Imran Khan’s cabinet also congratulated Sheikh.
Prior to taking oath as the interior minister, Sheikh Rashid was serving as the Railways’ minister since the formation of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s government in the centre. The portfolios of other ministers kept changing during the ongoing term of PTI’s government but Sheikh Rashid’s ministry was never changed by the Prime Minister, Imran Khan. He was always ‘in’ in the government and now he is more ‘in’ than one can expect in the present scenario.
Sheikh Rashid severed as federal minister in the cabinet of several former prime ministers of Pakistan in the past.
He first time started his career as the federal minister for Industries from September 10, 1991 to July 18, 1993 in the cabinet of former Prime Minister, Mian Muhmmad Nawaz Sharif.
In the second term of former Prime Minister, Sharif he was also appointed the as federal minister for ‘Culture’ on July 11, 1997 and he kept this portfolio till August 6, 1998. He was also the federal minister of ‘Sports’ besides holding the portfolio as the federal minister of ‘Tourism’ in the cabinet of Sharif.
Shiekh Rashid was also bestowed with another ministry named as Ministry of Youth Affairs in the cabinet of Nawaz Sharif. He also served as Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis in the mentioned stint. The story does not end here as he was awarded the federal ministry of Labour and Power in the same regime.
Later on Mian Nawaz Sharif’s government was toppled by the General Pervez Musharraf and he held general election in 2002 in which Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali was elected as the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Sheikh Rashid was also in the limelight in this stint as he was awarded consecutively the portfolio of Federal Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in the terms of three former Prime Ministers of Pakistan namely, Jamali, Shujat Hussain and Shaukat Aziz from the period 2002 to 2007.
Later he formed his own political party Awami Muslim League which is an ally of PTI in the centre.
Sheikh Rashid, the 70 years old politician from Rawalpindi knows well as how to play his cards correctly and despite the fact that he represents single- member- party in the parliament, now he has been made incharge of a powerful ministry which were earlier held by Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Ahsan Iqbal, Chaudhry Shuat Hussain, Aitzaz Ahsan and other well-known political figures of the country.
Who knows Guinness Book of World Records might take interest in the profile of Sheikh Rashid and rate him world record holder of holding most number of ministries in the world in coming days.
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