Tariq Fatemi made PM Shehbaz Sharif’s aide on Foreign Affairs

ISLAMABAD – Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has picked former ambassador Syed Tariq Fatemi as Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs.

Fatemi, who was removed from the same position for being part of the infamous Dawn Leaks in 2017 during Nawaz Sharif government, has named a day after 33 ministers took oath in the new federal cabinet.

The Cabinet Secretariat has also been issued a notification stating that Tariq has been appointed as Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs with immediate effect.

Reports in local media suggest that Fatemi's presence in a meeting chaired by PM Shehbaz Sharif raised eyebrows over his role in the new setup.

Several PML-N leaders raised reservations over the presence of a 77-year-old as he was named in a number of controversies including Dawn Leaks which started a conflict between the civilian government and the military and sparked a storm in national politics.

Fatemi, a Pakistani diplomat, policy strategist, and professor belongs to a well-known Sufi family, with his father, the late Professor Syed Alay Mohammad Abdur Rauf Fatemi, a well-known educationist and scholar of repute in former East Pakistan.

He joined the foreign service in October 1969 and was later promoted to the highest rank in the civil service. His career as a diplomat spans 35 years and high-profile appointments around the world.

He held various diplomatic assignments in Pakistan Missions abroad, including Moscow (twice), New York, Washington (twice) and Beijing.

Following his retirement, he joined Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz and assisted the party on various foreign policy matters. He served in the same position under deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif. In 2017, then PM Nawaz Sharif ordered to remove Fatemi from his post for his alleged role in the scandal that garnered international attention.

He also made headlines when some media reports claimed that the daughter of Fatemi was married to an American Muslim who entered Islam from Judaism before marriage.