By Sajjad Hussain
Islamabad, Apr 19 (PTI) 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.
