Islamabad, Jun 5 : A six-member caretaker federal Cabinet today took oath to run the Pakistan government under interim Prime Minister Nasirul Mulk till the general election on July 25.
President Mamnoon Hussain administered the oath of office to the members of the Cabinet at the President House which was attended among others, by caretaker prime minister and retired Supreme Court judge Mulk.
President Hussain had administered the oath to 67-year-old Mulk, who was unanimously nominated for the post by both the government and opposition, on June 1.
Those who took oath today include Shamshad Akhtar, Roshan Khurshid, Ali Zafar, Abdullah Hussain Haroon, Azam Khan and Muhammad Yousaf Sheikh.
The Prime Minister’s Office said that Haroon was appointed as the foreign minister and he will have additional charge of the ministries of defence and defence production.
Haroon belongs to a leading business family of Karachi and has served as Pakistan’s ambassador at the UN.
Azam Khan, former chief secretary of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, was appointed as the interior minister.
Former governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, Akhtar was appointed as finance minister. She had made history after becoming the first female governor of the central bank (2006-2009).
Zafar, a renowned legal expert, was given charge of the law ministry.
After the oath taking ceremony, the caretaker prime minister and his Cabinet members also held a meeting with President Hussain.
The president expressed the confidence that the caretaker set up will fulfil its responsibilities regarding conduct of free, fair and transparent elections in the country scheduled on July 25.
He said it is a matter of satisfaction that a democratically elected government completed its tenure for the second time.
Interim Prime Minister Mulk has said that he will serve the nation in accordance with the powers bestowed on him for the next two months. He added that the country should be run according to the Constitution of Pakistan.
