ISLAMABAD - Shaukat Tarin would continue to work as Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue as the government could not elect him as Senator within constitutional tenure for retaining him as Federal Minister.
On April 16, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan had appointed Shaukat Tarin as Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue as according to the law that he needed to be a member of parliament within six months. The government had planned to elect Tarin as Senator before October 15 for retaining him as Federal Minister. However, the government could not elect him as Senator within constitutional tenure.
Now, Tarin would continue to work as Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue till he becomes a senator. Shaukat Tarin is currently heading Pakistan’s delegation in the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). The government might face some challenges on economic front as Tarin will not be able to chair the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) and other cabinet committees after becoming Adviser to the Prime Minister. The Islamabad High Court had ruled that unelected advisers and special assistants could not head the government committees, especially cabinet committees.  
The PTI government is claiming that Shaukat Tarin would be elected as senator either from Punjab or Khyber Pakhtunkhawa provinces where ruling party has the majority. Once Tarin has been elected as a senator, he will get his finance ministry portfolio back. 
“I am not going anywhere. I trust the prime minister who has promised to make me a senator,” Tarin had recently said in a press conference.
Earlier, the incumbent government had decided to elect Tarin from Punjab against Senator Ishaq Dar’s seat, which has virtually remained vacant in the absence of the PML-N’s former finance minister. Dar has not taken oath because of his self-exile in the UK. The government on September 1 had promulgated the Elections (Third Amendment) Ordinance 2021, making it binding upon the elected members to take oath as legislator within 60 days. However, PML-N had claimed that former finance minister Ishaq Dar was barred by the Supreme Court from taking oath as a member of the Senate soon after his election, and he could not be deprived of the seat on account of new legislation through presidential ordinance.
Officials informed that government is now planning to elect Shaukat Tarin as senator from Punjab or Khyber Pakhunkhawa.
In three years of its constitutional tenure, the PTI government had brought four finance ministers. Initially, Asad Umar was appointed as Federal Minister for Finance. Later, he was replaced with Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, who was removed from the post and the government had brought Hammad Azhar. In April this year, Shaukat Tarin was appointed as Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue.