In the latest cabinet shuffle, Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry has been given the portfolio of information for the second time, Senator Faisal Javed Khan confirmed on Thursday.
In a tweet, Khan congratulated Chaudhry for “getting reappointed as Federal Minister for Information”.
“Wish you all the best. Lots of prayers,” he added.
Chaudhry replaces Shibli Faraz, who was appointed to the post in April of last year. Faraz was recently re-elected to the Senate from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Chaudhry had earlier been removed as information minister in April 2019, less than a year into the PTI government and given the portfolio of science and technology.
It is unclear whether Chaudhry will continue to hold the charge of the science and technology ministry as the government has yet to make the notification of his appointment public.
Fawad Chaudhry – Background
Born in a politically active family in Jhelum, Chaudhry first dabbled in electoral politics when he contested the 2002 elections from a Punjab Assembly constituency and managed to secure only 161 votes.
He then joined Pervez Musharraf’s All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) as its media coordinator and remained affiliated with it till 2012 when differences between him and Musharraf over the latter’s decision to return to Pakistan led him to quit the APML and join the PPP.
Just before the 2013 general elections, he jumped ship once again and contested the polls for the National Assembly on a Pakistan Muslim League Quaid (PML-Q) ticket, albeit unsuccessfully.
Three years later, Chaudhry was ready to make a move again. In June 2016, he joined the PTI, a party he had chided on many talk shows including one he hosted himself.
He was rewarded with a ticket to contest a National Assembly by-election in Jhelum but lost. It was finally in the 2018 general elections that he won both National Assembly and Punjab Assembly seats in his native district but decided to retain the former and was inducted in the federal cabinet.
In his previous tenure as information minister, he had managed to rile up politicians, journalists, judges, and bureaucrats. He had tendered apologies and offended again soon after. He had also been barred from attending a Senate session for using non-parliamentary language.
