After much ado, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s federal cabinet—including 34 federal ministers and ministers of state— finally took oath on Tuesday.
The oath was administered by Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani after President Arif Alvi excused himself from the oath-taking.
The cabinet includes many stalwarts with PML-N taking 14 ministries and PPP 11 ministries.
Portfolios of the ministers will be announced later.
Those who took oath as the federal ministers included: Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Ahsan Iqbal, Rana Sanaullah, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Rana Tanveer Hussain, Khurram Dastgir Khan, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Miftah Ismail, Mian Javed Latif, Riaz Hussain Pirzada, Murtaza Javed Abbasi, Azam Nazeer Tarar, Syed Khurshid Ahmad Shah, Syed Naveed Qamar, Sherry Rehman, Abdul Qadir Patel, Shazia Marri, Syed Murtaza Mahmood, Sajid Hussain Toori, Ahsan ur Rehman Mazari, Abid Hussain, Asad Mahmood, Abdul Wassey, Mufti Abdul Shakoor, Muhammad Talha Mahmood, Syed Amin-ul-Haq, Syed Faisal Ali Sabzwari, Muhammad Israr Tareen, Nawabzada Shahzain Bugti and Tariq Bashir Cheema.
The Ministers of State who took the oath included: Dr Aisha Ghaus Pasha, Hina Rabbani Khar and Abdul Rehman Khan Kanju.
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who was dubbed to be taking the reins of the foreign ministry- did not take oath and it is being said that the decision of him joining the federal cabinet has not been finalized yet.
Earlier reports of a rift between the coalition had emerged following JUI-F Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s call for early elections.
Addressing his party workers in Peshawar on Monday, the JUI-F chief had said that the incumbent government was here maximum for a year and early elections should take place.
He further said that electoral reforms were the need of the hour.
