ZULFIQAR AHMAD

ISLAMABAD: Senator Aon Abbas Buppi was handpicked as special assistant to the prime minister on e-commerce on Wednesday.

A notification issued by the Cabinet Division said that Buppi’s appointment will be in honourary capacity.

He was elected a senator in March this year on a seat of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), before becoming senator he was managing director of Pakistan Baitul Maal.

His appointment follows that of PTI’s Muhammad Ayub Afridi as the adviser to the prime minister on overseas Pakistanis.

Afridi submitted his resignation as member of the upper house to Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani and vacated his seat on Tuesday to pave the way for Shaukat Tarin, the adviser to the prime minister on finance, to be elected as a senator from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

With the recent appointments, the number of members in federal cabinet has swelled to 53, which include 17 special assistants, five advisers to the prime minister, 27 federal ministers, and four ministers of state.

This is pertinent to mention that PM Khan used to leave no stone unturned in criticising his predecessors for keeping a “a brigade of advisers, special assistants, ministers and their deputies” but he broke all previous records by following in the footsteps of those whom he used to target.