Islamabad (August 4, 2017): President Mamnoon Hussain has administered oath to 46 members of the federal cabinet of Prime Minister of Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.
According to the details, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s cabinet was sworn-in by President Mamnoon Hussain at a ceremony on Friday morning. The oath taking ceremony was held at an elegant ceremony held at President House here.
The new cabinet includes 27 federal ministers and 17 ministers of state, according to sources. Apart from retaining most members of the previous cabinet, the new cabinet includes five new federal and 10 state ministers.
However, sources said party MNAs Daniyal Aziz, Mir Dostain Domki and Mumtaz Tarar did not attend the ceremony despite being on the list of new ministers. Aziz is said to have reservations regarding his appointment as a state minister, according to sources.
A new ministry of ‘power’ has also been formed after combining the ministries of petroleum and electricity, sources added. A separate ministry of water will be formed as well. The prime minister, who held the portfolio of petroleum and natural resources ministry in the previous cabinet, will head the new power ministry.
The oath-taking ceremony took place at the Presidency and was attended by PML-N members and senior government officials, as well as people from other walks of life.
The members of the cabinet, speaking after the president, repeated their oath of office submitted the signed oaths to the president.
Following the oath-taking, the new prime minister began chairing the first session of his cabinet.
The new cabinet of Prime Minister Khaqan Abbasi has been finalized. Chaudhary Nisar who will not be a part of the cabinet will be replaced by Ahsan Iqbal.
According to details, Mushahid Ullah Khan has made his return in the cabinet and will be the Environment Minister.
The following are the names of just a few expected cabinet members:
Khawaja Asif: Foreign Minister, Ahsan Iqbal: Interior Minister
Khurram Dastgir: Defence Minister, Ishaq Dar: Finance Minister
Pervez Malik: Trade, Marriyum Aurangzeb: Information Minister
Tariq Fazal Chaudhary: Minister for CADD, Saad Rafique: Railways Minister while ministry for Petroleum will remain continue with PM Shahid Khanqan Abbasi.
Rana Tanveer: Water and power, Mushahidullah: Minister for Environment
Saira Afzal Tarar will continue hold the Health ministry.
Talal Chaudhary, Danyal Aziz, Junaid Anwar Chaudhary, Abudur Rehman Kanju, Khusro Bukhtiar will enjoy the slots of state ministers.
Arshad Laghari, Akram Durrani and Aijazul Haq will also be part of the federal cabinet.
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has kept Ministry of Petroleum portfolio that he held previously. In addition, he will also keep Ministry of Water and Power and Ministry of Planning portfolios with him.
Meanwhile, US has congratulated Pakistan’s newly-elected Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, saying it “looks forward” to working with him on areas of mutual cooperation.
“We want to congratulate Prime Minister Shahid Abbasi on his election by the National Assembly. We will certainly look forward to working with him on areas of mutual cooperation,” State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told in news conference.
The latest development comes hours after the PML-N’s top brass held two back-to-back consultative meetings at Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s Donga Gali residence.
The federal cabinet was dissolved after Sharif stepped down following a landmark Supreme Court ruling on the Panama Papers case.
The court in its July 28 concluded that Sharif had been ‘dishonest’ by not declaring in his nomination papers for the 2013 General Election ─ as required under Section 12(2)(f) of the Representation of the People Act (ROPA), 1976 ─ a salary of 10,000 dirhams receivable as chairman of the board of Dubai-based company Capital FZE owned by his son Hassan Nawaz.
Related News:
