46-strong federal cabinet takes oath

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet of newly elected Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi with 28 federal and 18 state ministers has taken oath in Islamabad on Friday three days after the new PM took oath of his office. President Mamnoon Hussain administered oath to members of the cabinet at an august ceremony at Aiwan e Sadr this morning. Yesterday, a 47-member cabinet was finalised by PML-N leadership; however, due to the refusal of Daniyal Aziz to take oath, the number of cabinet members stood at 46. Reports said Daniyal Aziz had arrived to take oath but got angry when the PML-N leader knew that he has been given the portfolio of State Minister, instead of Federal Minister. According to details, Mushahid Ullah Khan will be the Environment Minister while Khawaja Asif will be appointed as the Foreign Minister. Khurram Dastagir will be the new Defence Minister of Pakistan, the portfolio previously held by Khawaja Asif. Ahsan Iqbal will be the successor to Chaudhry Nisar as he will take oath as the country’s new Interior Minister. Ishaq Dar will resume his responsibilities as the Finance Minister. Junaid Anwar Chaudhry and Irshad Laghari will also be part of the new cabinet. The former cabinet stood dissolved after Nawaz Sharif was disqualified by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in the Panama Papers case for not disclosing 10,000 dirhams which were receivable to him.   Portfolios The cabinet members and their portfolios are: 1. Ishaq Dar, Minister of Finance 2.  Khawaja Asif, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs 3.  Ahsan Iqbal, Interior Minister 4.  Khurram Dastgir, Defense Minister 5.  Sardar Muhammad Yousaf, Minister for Religious Affairs 6.  Saad Rafique: Minister of Railways 7.  Sheikh Aftab, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs 8.  Abdul Qadir Baloch, Minister of SAFRON 9.  Baleegh Ur Rehman, Minister of Education and Training 10. Akram Durrani, Minister of Housing 11. Riaz Hussain Pirzada, Minister for Inter Provincial Coordination 12. Mushahid Ullah, Minister of Climate Change 13. Kamran Michael, Minister for Ports and Shipping. Others who sworn in as the federal ministers included Barjees Tahir, Parvaiz Malik, Zahid Hamid, Mumtaz Ahmed Tarar,  Salahuddin Tirmizi and Rana Tanveer. While Ministers of States are Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Mohsin Shah Nawaz Ranjha, Marriyum Aurangzeb,  Pir Ameer ul Hasnat, Anusha Rahman, Jam Kamal Khan, Talal Chuadhry, Barrister Usman Ibrahim, Junaid Anwaar Chaudhry, Abdul Rehman Kanjo, Awais Leghari, Ghalib Khan, Ayaz Shirazi, Chaudhry Jafar Iqbal and Dostain Khan. The ceremony was attended by parliamentarians, and diplomats.–SAMAA/APP