Yasin Malik's wife in Pakistan government seen as an attempt to push 'Kashmir' agenda

Jailed Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik's wife, Mushaal Hussein Mullick, has been made part of the caretaker government in Pakistan, a development that observers described as a symbolic move by the country's military establishment to keep its "Kashmir agenda" alive.

Mullick, who belongs to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), has been appointed special advisor to the caretaker Prime Minister, Anwaarul Haq Kakar, on human rights and women's empowerment.

The move comes in the backdrop of Pakistan's failed attempts to raise the issue of the abrogation of Article 370 by the Narendra Modi government in India and, more recently, the successful G20 meetings hosted by India in Srinagar, said people aware of the matter.


Her inclusion in the caretaker government is also an attempt to placate PoK amid its deteriorating economy, they said.

Mullick, who has never been politically active, is a graduate of the London School of Economics. She met Yasin Malik during one of his tours to Pakistan in 2005 and they got married in 2009.

Pakistan's interim cabinet has 16 federal ministers and three advisers. Former foreign secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani has been appointed as foreign minister, Sarfaraz Bugti as interior minister, Shamshad Akhtar as finance minister, Lt Gen (retired) Anwar Ali Haider as defence minister and senior journalist Murtaza Solangi as information minister.

Khalil George took the oath as minorities minister, industrialist Gohar Ijaz as industries minister, academic Umar Saif as information technology minister, Ahmad Irfan Aslam as law minister, actor Jamal Shah as culture minister and Aniq Ahmad as religious affairs minister.

The general election will be delayed as Pakistan's election commission decided to conduct a fresh delimitation of constituencies on the basis of the new census. According to the schedule announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan on Thursday, the delimitation will be completed on December 14, beyond the 90-day period to hold polls after the dissolution of the assembly.