ISLAMABAD: The PTI government will have to get elected Shaukat Tarin as Senator before 12th October. Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin is scheduled to leave for talks with IMF on 12th Oct 2021 and before that the PTI government would have to get him elected as Senator, otherwise, his six-months term as Finance Minister will expire on Oct 16, 2021.
For this purpose, Finance Minister Tarin has decided to take up the matter of his election as a senator with Prime Minister Imran Khan as the deadline to elect him as a lawmaker is expiring next month.
The six months’ time limit for electing the finance minister as a member of parliament will expire on Oct 16, 2021.
Sources said that Shaukat Tarin has decided to take up this issue with the prime minister to end rumours and uncertainty about his fate as Finance Minister.
If the government decides not to elect him Senator till the deadline, he will have to become an adviser to PM on Finance. In such a scenario, the government will have to choose a political face for this key position. Four finance ministers have been changed in the last three years of the PTI.
When asked about his fate as the time limit for electing him a member of parliament is nearing, Shaukat Tarin replied that he was going nowhere as he had full faith that PM Imran Khan would get him elected as Senator.
Finance Minister recently said he was scheduled to visit Washington DC to attend the annual meeting of the IMF/World Bank from Oct 12, 2021. Now the government would have to elect him before his departure for attending IMF/WB meetings outside the country.
The government had de-seated Ishaq Dar with an intention to elect Tarin to this vacant seat but the matter had ended up in the court.
Now the government will have to vacate any seat from the Punjab, KP or Sindh but so far no decision has been known. Shaukat Tarin’s close aides said that he might be elected to the Senate in the first 10 days of October.
