Members of the new federal cabinet took oath at a ceremony organised at the Presidency in Islamabad on Friday morning.
President Mamnoon Hussain administered the oath to 43 members of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s cabinet comprising mostly old faces but with some reshuffled portfolios.
The names of the cabinet members were finalised by PM Abbasi after a long consultation with his predecessor Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who is set to be the new PM of the party once he wins a local by-election.
The PML-N party had been deliberating over membership of the new cabinet over the past few days, as well as its contender for the upcoming NA-120 by-poll for the seat left vacant by ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
The federal cabinet was dissolved after Sharif stepped down following a landmark Supreme Court ruling on the Panama Papers case.
Following the prime minister’s departure, PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was nominated as the party’s choice for interim prime minister. He was elected premier by Ministers of National Assembly, MNAs on Tuesday, and took oath on the same day.
in his maiden speech to the National Assembly following his election, put forward his vision and promised “I am the country’s prime minister. If I am here for 45 days, I will do 45 months’ work in this time,”
