Yasin Malik's wife Mishaal inducted in new Pak govt; gets Human Rights Portfolio: Report

New Delhi, Aug 18: Pakistan's interim Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar has included Mishaal Hussain Malik, the wife of imprisoned separatist leader Yasin Malik, in his cabinet. Ironically, she has been designated as Pakistan's Minister for Human Rights, according to a report published by Reuters.

 

 

It should be noted that Yasin Malik, the chief of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), had been found guilty by a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in terror funding cases and was sentenced to life imprisonment on May 25, 2022.

 

According to reports, Mishaal Hussain Malik has been named Pakistan's Minister for Human Rights. Shamshad Akhtar, the former head of Pakistan's central bank, has been named finance minister in the temporary government. Sarfaraz Bugti, a former provincial minister, has been appointed interior minister.

 

 

The members of the newly appointed caretaker PM Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar's cabinet were sworn in by Pakistan President Arif Alvi. According to a list of cabinet members released by the Presidency, sixteen federal ministers took the oath of office, and Pakistan's temporary prime minister also named three advisers, according to Dawn.

 

Other federal ministers included Jalil Abbas Jilani, Lt. Gen. (r) Anwar Ali Hyder, and Murtaza Solangi as the additional federal ministers. Ahmad Irfan Aslam, Muhammad Ali, Gohar Ejaz, Umar Saif, Nadeem Jan, Khalil George, Aneeq Ahmad, Jamal Shah, and Madad Ali Sindhi are Sami Saeed, Shahid Ashraf Tarar, and Ahmad Irfan Aslam.

 

Advisors to Pakistan Caretaker PM include Air Marshal (r) Farhat Hussain Khan, Ahad Khan Cheema and Waqar Masood Khan, the report said.

 

Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, a Senator and Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) leader, was sworn in as Pakistan's interim PM on August 14. The Pakistan President administered the oath to the leader in the presence of outgoing Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif and his former cabinet ministers.

 

 

The JKLF had been banned in 2019. Furthermore, on July 15 of this year, Rubaiya Sayeed, the sister of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti and daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, identified Yasin Malik in connection with her kidnapping on December 8, 1989.

 

Mishaal Hussain Malik, a Pakistani national, is married to Yasin Malik who is the chief of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in India. The two met in 2005 when Yasin had gone to Islamabad to gather support for the Kashmiri separatist movement. They got married in 2009.

 

Malik visited India twice in 2014. Since then, the wife of Kashmiri separatist Yasin Malik has not shown any interest in visiting India nor has she applied for a visa since her two-year visa expired in 2015, a home ministry official had earlier said.

 

Mushaal Hussein Malik has been quoted in media reports as saying that India had not allowed her to meet Malik and his family for about three years and New Delhi should show a “humanitarian gesture", PTI had earlier reported.