INTERNATIONAL trade and industry minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz missed the newly appointed cabinet’s first meeting in Putrajaya today as he was overseas.  

A source in the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that Tengku Zafrul was absent because he was abroad, but refused to give further details.  

New Straits Times, however, quoted sources as saying that Tengku Zafrul was in Abu Dhabi on a trade mission.

“He has not gone to Qatar for the football world cup as alleged. He has gone to Abu Dhabi on a trade mission,” a source was quoted as saying.

The Ministry of International Trade and Industry is expected to announce details of the trade mission tomorrow.

Tengku Zafrul had gone to his ministry at 6.07pm on Saturday evening for a symbolic ceremony of clocking in for work. 

This happened just hours after the ministers had taken their oath of office before the Yang di-Pertuan Agong at Istana Negara at 3pm on Saturday.

Tengku Zafrul was appointed senator after being named in Anwar’s administration. 

He was previously the finance minister in the Muhyiddin Yassin administration and was retained by Ismail Sabri Yaakob. 

In the general election (GE15), Tengku Zafrul contested in the Kuala Selangor parliamentary constituency as a Barisan Nasional candidate but lost to incumbent Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad from Pakatan Harapan (PH). 

Despite retaining the seat, Dr Dzulkefly, who was a former health minister under the first PH government, was not appointed as a minister. 

During the GE15 campaign, Anwar had said that he was not ready to appoint Tengku Zafrul as a minister if PH formed a government. – December 5, 2022.