New federal cabinet takes oath

Senate chairman Sadiq Sanjrani has administrated the swearing-in ceremony of the new federal cabinet on Tuesday. The swearing-in ceremony kicked off with the recitation of the Holy Quran. Thirty-one federal ministers and three ministers of state were sworn into office.

According to a statement issued by the President House, PML-N’s Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Ahsan Iqbal, Rana Sanaullah, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Rana Tanveer Hussain, Khurram Dastgir Khan, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Miftah Ismail, Javed Latif, Riaz Hussain Pirzada, Murtaza Javed Abbasi and Azam Nazeer Tarar took the oath as federal ministers.

Representing the PPP, Syed Khursheed Shah, Syed Naveed Qamar, Sherry Rehman, Abdul Qadir Patel, Shazia Marri, Syed Murtaza Mahmud, Sajid Hussain Turi, Ehsan Ur Rehman Mazari, and Abid Hussain swore in as federal ministers. Asad Mahmood, Abdul Wasay, and Abdul Shakoor from Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islami Pakistan Senator Muhammad Talha Mahmood, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan(MQM)’s Amin-ul- Haque and Faisal Sabzwari, Muhammad Israr Tareen of the Awami Party of Balochistan. The newly appointed federal ministers also include Nawabzada Shazain Bugti of the Jamhoori Watan Party and Tariq Bashir Cheema of the Pakistan-Quaid Muslim League.

Meanwhile, Aisha Ghaus Pasha and Abdul Rehman Khan Kanju of PML-N, as well as Hina Rabbani Khar of PPP, were sworn in as ministers of state. In addition, Qamar Zaman Kaira of the PPP, Amir Muqam of PML-N, and Awn Chaudhry of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s disgruntled Jahangir Tareen group have been appointed as advisers to the Prime Minister.

The ceremony was supposed to happen on Monday, however, it turned out that President Arif Alvi had refused to swear in legislators, forcing the government to postpone the ceremony until Tuesday (today). Before that, the president himself had also apologized for administering the oath in Sharif for health reasons, after which Sanjrani took responsibility.