ISLAMABAD, March 23: It appears that PPP leaders, particularly the prime minister, are deeply displeased with Senator Babar Awan. Late on Thursday night, he removed his adviser for law, justice and parliamentary affairs, who happens to be younger brother of Senator Awan.
“Prime Minister Gilani has approved the appointment of Ghulam Farooq Awan as adviser to the ministry of postal services. Earlier, Mr Farooq Awan was serving as an adviser to the ministry of law, justice and parliamentary affairs,” said a press note, issued by the media wing of the prime minister's secretariat.
It is the second major change in the ministry of law over the past three days. On March 21, the prime minister shunted its secretary Masood Chishti sideways and made him senior member of his inspection commission.
Mr Chishti also is a close associate of Senator Babar Awan who had brought him to the top position in the law ministry during his stint as the federal minister.
Mr Farooq Awan was appointed adviser to the prime minister in April 2011, when Senator Babar Awan had resigned as law minister to appear as a lawyer in the Supreme Court in the presidential reference on the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto case.
Apparently to compensate Senator Awan, the PPP decided to appoint his younger brother as adviser in the law ministry with the status of a federal minister.
The PPP leadership believes that the hanging of former Prime Minster Z.A. Bhutto was a judicial murder and wants to get the historical wrong corrected.
Moula Bakhsh Chandio replaced Senator Awan as the minister for law, but he had little say in running the ministry.
In the presence of Mr Farooq Awan and Mr Chishti, sources close to the law ministry said, Mr Chandio merely held the position, but most of the work was done by the Awan brothers. At times, Mr Chandio spoke about his helplessness while talking to the media.
However, 2012 is turning out to be a really bad year for Mr Awan except his re-election as a Senator for another six-year term.
On Jan 17, his licence as a lawyer was suspended for allegedly committing a contempt of court.
The Supreme Court will formally charge him in the first week of April.
Meanwhile, there have been reports that Mr Aitazaz Ahsan is busy mending fences with President Asif Ali Zardari and other party leaders. The PPP was not pleased with his role as leader of the lawyers' movement and even suspended his membership of the party's Central Executive Committee.
But Mr Ahsan staged a comeback when he was asked by President Zardari to make a public speech on the death anniversary of Ms Bhutto last year.
When Prime Minister Gilani selected Mr Ahsan as his defence counsel in the contempt of court case, the decision did not go well with Senator Awan.
And it was certain for the Senator when he and Mr Chishti were asked by the prime minister to appear as his defence witnesses in the contempt case, and both declined to do so.