Gilani appoints Malik Adviser to PM on Interior Affairs after SC Senate suspension order

Islamabad : Following the Supreme Court”s decision to suspend Rehman Malik”s membership in the Senate, the Pakistan government promptly decided to appoint him as the Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior Affairs.

According to sources, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has taken a prompt decision to make the stop-gap arrangement, reports The News.

Taking the Pakistan People”s Party”s (PPP) leadership as well as the allied parties into confidence, Gilani has directed the Cabinet Division to issue the notification, appointing Malik as the Adviser to the PM on Interior Affairs.

“The Cabinet Division is most likely to issue the notification any time from now,” the sources said.

The government reacted to the Supreme Court”s interim order in the dual nationality case swiftly as the Interior Ministry is serving as a pivot to the war on terror besides law and order being one of its paramount functions, the sources added.

The PPP government allocated Malik the Interior Ministry as soon as it took over after winning the 2008 elections. Since Malik was not a member of parliament at that time, the government appointed him as the PM”s Adviser on Interior.

Later, the PPP leadership got him elected as a senator on April 27, 2009. Thus, on the very same day he took oath as interior minister after getting membership to the Upper House of Parliament. To be a federal minister, one has to be a member of either of the houses of parliament.

Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto”s second tenure.

He later joined the Pakistan People”s Party and was a trusted lieutenant and chief security officer (CSO) of Benazir Bhutto.