Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif's Cabinet takes oath, Bilawal stays out for now
Islamabad, Apr 19: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's 34-member Cabinet was sworn in on Tuesday after several days of delay, with Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani administering the oath to new ministers as President Arif Alvi did not attend the ceremony. The ceremony was scheduled to be held on Monday, but President Alvi had refused to administer the oath to the lawmakers, compelling the government to postpone it.
Pakistan Peoples Party's (PPP's) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari was not among the ministers. Earlier, there was speculation that he would be the country's next foreign minister.
Initially, 31 federal ministers and three ministers of state took the oath to join Prime Minister Sharif.
Last week, Sanjrani administered the oath of office to Prime Minister Sharif after President Alvi, a member of ousted premier Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, went on 'sick' leave ahead of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader's inauguration.
Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) got 13 ministries and nine ministries have been given to Pakistan People's Party (PPP).
Four
ministries
were
handed
over
to
Jamiat
Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl
(JUI-F)
and
Muttahida
Qaumi
Movement-Pakistan
(MQM-P)
got
two
ministries.
Other
coalition
partners
including
Balochistan
Awami
Party
(BAP),
Pakistan
Muslim
League-Quaid
(PML-Q)
and
Jamhori
Watan
Party
(JWP)
got
one
ministry
each
in
the
new
set
up.
Two state ministers from PML-N and one state minister from PPP were also appointed. One member of the PPP and two members of PML-N have been appointed advisors to the Prime Minister.
Lawmakers from the PML-N who took oath are Khwaja Asif, Ahsan Iqbal, Rana Sanaullah, Ayaz Sadiq, Rana Tanveer, Khurram Dastgir, Saad Rafique, Mian Javed Latif, Mian Riaz Pirzada, Murtaza Javed Abbasi, Azam Nazir, Marriyum Aurangzeb and Miftah Ismail.
Khurshid Shah, Naveed Qamar, Sherry Rehman, Abdul Qadir Patel, Shazia Marri, Murtaza Mahmood, Sajid Hussain Tori, Ehsan-ur-Rehman and Abid Hussain from the PPP have also joined the Cabinet.
Asad Mahmood, Abdul Wasay, Mufti Abdul Shakur and Senator Talha Mahmood from the JUI-F and Syed Aminul Haq and Faisal Sabzwari MQM-P are also in the Cabinet.
Israr Tarin of BAP, Shahzain Bugti of JWP and Tariq Bashir Cheema of PML-Q are also included in the cabinet. Amir Muqam of PML-N, Qamar Zaman Kaira of PPP and Aun Chaudhry of Jahangir Tareen group are advisers to the Prime Minister.
Ayesha Ghous Pasha, Abdul Rehman Kanjo and Hina Rabbani Khar are the ministers of state in the new Cabinet.
The portfolios for these ministers are yet to be announced.