19-member Pak Cabinet takes oath

Islamabad, March 11

Pakistan prime minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday inducted 19 members into his Cabinet, ending the tenuous wait for the completion of government formation in the cash-strapped country.

Newly-elected president Asif Ali Zardari administered the oath to 19 members of the Cabinet at a ceremony held in the President’s House and was attended by prime minister Sharif among others.

Those who took oath included Ishaq Dar, Khawaja Asif, Ahsan Iqbal, Muhammad Aurangzeb, Azam Tarar, Rana Tanvir, Mohsin Naqvi, Ahad Cheema, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Riaz Prizada, Qaiser Sheikh, Shaza Fatima, Aleem Khan, Jam Kamal, Amir Muqam, Awais Leghari, Atta Tarar, Salik Hussian and Musaddiq Malik. The portfolio of the new minister will be announced later.

Aurangzeb will likely be the finance minister, Dar as the foreign minister, and Khawaja Asif the defence minister. Azam Tarar will be the law minister, Atta Tarar as information minister, Musaddik Malik as petroleum minister, Mohsin Naqvi as interior minister and Ahad Cheema as minister for Kashmir affairs.

Three technocrats — Muhammad Aurangzeb, Mohsin Naqvi and Ahad Cheema have been included in the cabinet as advisors. The cabinet has only one woman, Shaza Fatima.

Jailed former PM Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party leaders have criticised the formation of the Cabinet, saying it comprises those leaders who have lost the people’s mandate. — PTI

Zardari’s daughter to become ‘first lady’

• In a historic decision, Pakistan president Asif Zardari has decided to formally recognise his 31-year-old daughter Aseefa Bhutto as the first lady of the country, according to a media report
• The status of the first lady goes to the wife of the President. But Zardari became a widower after his wife and ex-PM Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in 2007
• Zardari did not remarry and the position of the first lady remained vacant during 2008 to 2013