KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 5 — International Trade and Industry Minister Senator Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz was absent from the special Cabinet meeting today as he was with a trade delegation to the United Arab Emirates, according to a source.

The person was responding to rumours that the minister was in Qatar to attend the ongoing 2022 Fifa World Cup

"He is not in Qatar and not there to watch the World Cup. He is in Abu Dhabi on official business,” the source told Berita Harian, referring to the capital of the UAE.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today chaired a special Cabinet meeting of the unity government at Perdana Putra here, with all Cabinet members present except Tengku Zafrul.

The Cabinet line-up, consisting of 28 ministers and two deputy prime ministers, was announced by the prime minister last Friday.

Tengku Zafrul was formerly the finance minister under Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s administrations.

He replaced the former senior minister of international trade and industry Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali.

The Fifa World Cup is currently ongoing in Qatar with two round-of-16 matches scheduled every day until Wednesday morning. The quarter-final matchups will then start on Friday night at 11pm.

Yesterday, England beat Senegal 3-0 to move into the quarterfinals where they will face World Cup champions France.