President Asif Zardari administers oath to 19-member federal cabinet

President Asif Ali Zardari has administered the oath of office to a 19-member federal cabinet.

The ceremony for taking the oath took place on Monday afternoon at the President House, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in attendance, among others.

Before this event, Prime Minister Sharif submitted the names of the 19 federal cabinet members to President Zardari. Insiders with knowledge of the situation report that the prime minister proposed these 19 people for the role of federal ministers, pursuant to clause 1 of Article 92 of the Constitution.

Attaullah Tarar, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Jam Kamal, Ameer Muqam, Awais Laghari, Khawaja Asif, Ahsan Iqbal, Rana Tanveer, Abdul Aleem Khan, Azam Nazir Tarar, Chaudhry Salik Hussain, Qaiser Sheikh, and Riaz Pirzada have all been sworn in as federal ministers.

Additionally, Muhammad Aurangzeb, Ahad Cheema, and Mohsin Naqvi have taken oaths, with the expectation that they will be assigned as ministers of state, equivalent to federal ministers in rank.

Also, Dr. Musadik Malik and former finance minister Ishaq Dar, despite holding no parliamentary seat, have taken the oath to be appointed as federal ministers as per clause 1 of Article 92 in conjunction with clause 9 of Article 91 of the Constitution.

PML-N’s Shaza Fatima Khawaja has been added to the cabinet as well and is set to be appointed as a minister of state.

Notably absent from this initial cabinet lineup are any members of the PPP.