ISLAMABAD — The Cabinet of Pakistan's newly-elected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was sworn in Tuesday during a brief ceremony.
Acting President Sadiq Sanjrani administered the oath to the 34 ministers at the white marble palace known as the Presidency in the capital, Islamabad.
Sharif also attended the ceremony. His election April 11 ousted former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Sharif's former political rivals are also part of his coalition government. The portfolios for the ministers are expected to be announced later Tuesday.
Among prominent lawmakers who were inducted into the Cabinet is Khawaja Mohammad Asif, a former defense minister and a member of the Pakistan Muslim League party.
Several politicians from the party of former President Asif Ali Zardari are also part of the Cabinet, including Khursheed Shah and Sherry Rehman.
Sharif ousted Imran Khan through a vote of no-confidence in the National Assembly, Pakistan's lower house of parliament. Khan lost the grip on power after being deserted by his party allies and a key coalition partner earlier this month.
Since then, Khan has demanded new elections at rallies, saying the new government was imposed under a US conspiracy, a charge Washington has denied, and which the new government in Pakistan says was a pack of lies.
After much anticipation and delays, Sharif's Cabinet has been sworn in in the first phase at an oath-taking ceremony on Tuesday. The Cabinet has 31 federal ministers, three ministers of state and three advisers.
Despite reports of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to be given the portfolio of the Foreign Ministry and Petroleum Ministry respectively, the two politicians are not a part of PM Sharif's Cabinet so far.
Bilawal did, however, attend the oath-taking of the Cabinet members. A PML-N leader, while speaking during Geo News program 'Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Saath', said that Bilawal would become the next foreign minister
According to The News, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif contacted Abbasi and asked him to hold the portfolio of the minister for petroleum to steer the country out of the crisis, citing sources.
Soon after the oath-taking ceremony, former federal minister Fawad Chaudhry mocked the newly formed Cabinet, saying that it seemed like the "attendance register of Central Jail."
Taking to Twitter, Fawad said: "Miscellaneous Cabinet seems like the attendance register of Central Jail when names [of its members] are read. Big dacoits have joined the Cabinet."
Earlier, there was uncertainty among the parties of the ruling alliance on becoming a part of the federal Cabinet as PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari had said that his party would not take ministries.
However, later, in a brief press talk at Parliament House on Saturday, Asif Zardari said that they want their friends to be accommodated first, The News reported. — Agencies
