Pakistan's new cabinet of 37 members, headed by Prime Ministser Shehbaz Sharif, was sworn in on Tuesday over a week after the change of the government. Like before, during the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Sharif, President Arif Alvi was absent, and Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjarani administered the oath to the new ministers. Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Pakistan Peoples Party's (PPP's) chairman, who was earlier expected to be the next foreign minister, was not among the list of ministers today.

Sharif, who ousted former prime minister Imran Khan through a vote on a no-confidence motion, formed a coalition of anti-PTI parties and was later elected the prime minister in Parliament. However, just before his inauguration, President Arif Alvi, who belongs to Khan’s party, the PTI, went on leave, forcing the Senate Chairman to administer him the oath of office. 

PML-N, Sharif’s party, got 13 ministries while nine were given to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) led by hardline cleric Maulana Fazlur Rahman got four ministries. MQM-Pakistan, a Karachi-based party, got two ministries.

Sharif, who inherited a troubled economy with a record trade deficit, was in a hurry to appoint the cabinet to push forward his economic plans and reform agendas. He has already ordered the review of several stalled projects and increased the prices of electricity, making way for the revival of the IMF program, and also announced acceleration of the China Pakistan Economic Cooperation (CPEC) projects, many of which had remained stalled.

(SAM)