Shuffle expected in economic ministries as Shaukat Tarin builds his team

• Newly-appointed Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin will make key changes ahead of the new budget.
• Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Revenues Dr Waqar Masood's portfolio to be expanded. 
• Secretaries of petroleum, power and other ministries may also be shuffled by the new finance minister.

ISLAMABAD: Newly appointed Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin is expected to shuffle the economic ministries ahead of the budget 2021-22, reported The News.

The publication stated that Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Revenues, Dr Waqar Masood, is going to be granted a key position in the upcoming reshuffle of the portfolios of technocrats, especially within the top bureaucracy.

Sources told the newspaper that Dr Waqar Masood is likely to be appointed as secretary-general finance or he may be given the additional portfolio of finance.

Read more: What did Shaukat Tarin say about Pakistan's economy before becoming finance minister?

“Things are very much in the pipeline and issuance of notification will only clear the existing confusion,” said a top official who is privy to the developments.

Meanwhile, incumbent Secretary Economic Affairs Division (EAD), Noor Ahmed, may be replaced and given a key position in the Finance Division.

Secretaries of petroleum, power and other ministries may also be shuffled by the new finance minister as he builds his team.

Shaukat Tarin took the oath of the office earlier this week after PM Imran Khan appointed him as finance minister in place of Hammad Azhar.