ISLAMABAD, March 27: Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani on Thursday appointed former FIA official Rehman Malik and Hussain Haqqani as his advisers.

A notification issued by the cabinet division announced the appointment of Rehman Malik as adviser to the prime minister on interior and narcotics control with the status of a federal minister. It said the appointment of Mr Malik had been made by President Pervez Musharraf on the advice of the prime minister.

Hussain Haqqani has been made ambassador-at-large.

Former federal secretary Salman Farooqi, it is learnt, will also be given an important assignment in the new set-up.

Mr Malik, a former chief of the FIA, was one of the wanted men in Pakistan during his eight-year exile, for alleged involvement in corruption cases.

He is a close aide of PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and worked as security adviser to Benazir Bhutto during her exile and was also her security chief when she was assassinated in Rawalpindi on Dec 27 last year.

Mr Haqqani’s wife Farah Naz Ispahani has been elected to the National Assembly on a reserve seat.