Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday administered the oath of office and secrecy to a 19-member Federal Cabinet of the newly-elected Prime Minister Mian Mohammad Shehbaz Sharif in the national capital, Islamabad.
The ministers, whose names the PM had recommended earlier in the day, include 12 Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) and 3 Senators as federal ministers, among others, and came a day after Sharif held a marathon meeting to finalize the names, the Dawn newspaper reported.
The only Minister of State sworn in is a woman—Shaza Fatima Khawaja.
Pakistan Muslim League President Shehbaz Sharif was sworn in as the 24th Prime Minister of Pakistan on March 4.
The PML-N’s main ally, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), has refused to become part of the Federal Cabinet—its chief Asif Ali Zardari is, however, the new President of Pakistan.
Familiar faces in the new Cabinet include ex-defense minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, former finance minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar, ex-planning minister Ahsan Iqbal Chaudry, former law minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, and ex-state minister for petroleum Musadik Masood Malik.
New faces to serve in the federal cabinet include former caretaker Punjab chief minister Mohsin Raza Naqvi, who is currently the Pakistan Cricket Board chief.