Mushaal Mullick, the wife of jailed Kashmiri separatist and Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Yasin Malik, is set to join Pakistan’s Interim government, a Pakistani new agency reported on Thursday, August 17.
Mushaal’s role will be that of an advisor to the caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar on human rights issues. While not holding a ministerial position, her advisory role highlights the government’s attention Malik’s incarceration.
The newly-appointed caretaker Prime Minister, Anwaarul Haq Kakar, presided over the swearing-in ceremony of the 18-member Cabinet. The interim government aims to manage the nation’s affairs until the upcoming general elections, ensuring a smooth transition of power.
Key appointments within the Cabinet include former foreign secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani as Foreign Minister, Sarfaraz Bugti as Interior Minister, Shamshad Akhtar as Finance Minister, and Lt. Gen. (retired) Anwar Ali Haider as Defence Minister. Notable figures such as senior journalist Murtaza Solangi, Khalil George, Gohar Ijaz, Dr Umar Saif, Ahmad Irfan Aslam, Jamal Shah, and Aniq Ahmad have also taken up ministerial roles.
Yasin Malik, who married Mushaal Hussein in 2009, is currently imprisoned for his alleged involvement in a 2017 terror-funding case. His conviction and life sentence were issued by a Delhi court in May 2022.
Hailing from Srinagar, Yasin Malik faces additional legal proceedings related to the abduction case of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of the former Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in 1989, as well as a 1990 attack by JKLF militants on IAF personnel in Srinagar that resulted in casualties.
Mushaal is a graduate of the London School of Economics. Her mother Rehana Hussein Mullick was the secretary general of PML-N Women’s Wing, while her father MA Hussein Mullick was an international economist who headed the University of Bonn’s economics department and was the first Pakistani member of a Nobel Prize jury.
(With inputs from agencies)
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