Pakistan PM Shehbaz withdraws foreign affairs portfolio from Tariq Fatemi

In a setback to Pakistan's new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, he was forced to withdraw the appointment of seasoned diplomat Tariq Fatemi as his Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs on Thursday after coalition partner Pakistan Peoples Party opposed the move.

Fatemi is considered a close aide of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif. The 77-year-old former diplomat was not initially made part of Shehbaz's Cabinet which took oath on Tuesday after days of deliberations between the premier and his coalition partners.

He served as the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Foreign Affairs from 2013 to 2017 but removed after the so-called Dawn-leaks scandal.

The Pakistan government led by Shehbaz, the younger brother of Nawaz Sharif, on Wednesday appointed Fatemi as the SAPM to the Prime Minister.

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) immediately raised concerns at his appointment as its chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is expected to be appointed as foreign minister in the coming days.

Prime Minister Shehbaz, in an effort to allay the concerns of the PPP, asked the relevant department to change the appointment order.

According to a Cabinet Division notification, Fatemi will continue to serve as a SAPM without a portfolio and has been granted the additional status of a minister of state.

Minister of information Marriyum Aurangzeb told the media that the notification was changed to enlarge the role of Fatemi.

"First he was SAPM on foreign affairs only, now he is advisor on all departments, she said, downplaying U-turn by the prime minister.

Another reason for changing the notification was that Fatemi was sacked after Dawn-leaks and his reinstatement in the same position might have not gone well with the powerful establishment (military).

The Dawn-leaks was about a story published in the Dawn newspaper that reported the details of a high-level civil-military meeting discussing the issue of banned outfits operating in Pakistan.