Saqib Ali Haidri
Islamabad: President of Pakistan Mamnoon Hussain on Friday took oath from 44 new cabinet ministers of Prime Minister of Pakistan Shahid Khakaan Abbasi, 3 ministers assigned were absent from oath taking ceremony, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq and Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed were also present on the occasion.
The incumbent cabinet consists of 28 federal ministers and 19 ministers for state, many of them were taken from the previous cabinet of Former Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif. Ishaq Dar, Khawaja Asif, Saad Rafique, Ahsan Iqbal, Zahid Hamid, Barjees Tahir, Riaz Peerzada, Akram Durrani, Murtaza Jatoi, Sallahudin, Pervaiz Malik, Awais laghari, Kamran Maikal, Sardar Yousuf, Khurram Dastageer, Rana Tanveer, Javed Ali Shah, Baligh ur Rehman, Maulana Ameer Zamaan, Sheikh Aftab, Mushahid ullah, Mumtaz Tarrar, Hasil Bazinjo, Sallahuddin Rashdi and Saira Afzal were made as Federal Ministers.
While Minister for state include Anoshay Rehman, Talaal Chaudhary, Danyal Aziz, Maryam Aurangzaib, Doctor Darshan, Usman Ibrahim, Abdur Rehman Kanjo, Ch. Jafar Iqbal, Peer Ameer ul Hasnaat, Arshad Laghari, Mohsin Shahnawaz Ranjha, Junaid Anwaar, Jaam Kamal and Hafiz Abdul Karim. Talaal Chaudhary and Danyal Aziz who have been vocal in support of Nawaz Sharif and criticized opposition have been made state ministers in the cabinet. However, Danyal did not take oath in protest saying he deserved to be a federal minister.
Portfolios of Ministers are not yet officially announced by the federal government, as per sources, Ishaq Dar, Saad Rafique,Sardar Muhammad Yousuf will retain their previous portfolios which are Minister for Finance, Minister for Railways and Minister for Religious affairs respectively, Khurram Dastagir will be Minister for Defence, Ahsan Iqbal will replace Ch. Nisar as Minister for Interior, Zahid Hamid as Minister for Law, Mushahid Ullah Khan as Minister for Climate change. After 4 years of PML.N government, Ministry for foreign affairs portfolios has been assigned to a cabinet member Khawaja Asif.
Chaudhary Nisar refused to become a part of Shahid Khakaan Abbasi cabinet but said that he will continue to play his active role in decision making process. This is the first PML.N cabinet since 1988 without Ch. Nisar. MNA from Minorities reserve seat Dr. Darshan (Hindu) assigned minister for state after 25 years. The entire oath taking ceremony was administered in national language [Urdu].
A new ministry has also been introduced in the cabinet which is venture of Power and Petroleum while Power ministry was separated from water, Prime Minister Shahid Khakaan Abbasi will be minister in charge for this new ministry, he was minister for Petroleum and gas in Nawaz Sharif cabinet.
Rest 2 cabinet members who were absent in oath taking ceremony are Dostain Domki and Mumtaz Tarrar, they will take oath in coming days, Federal cabinet consists of 8 ministers from south Punjab, 5 from Baluchistan, 5 from Sindh, 3 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 1 from capital territory.