Islamabad, 28 April (HIST). Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar was made the Deputy Prime Minister on Sunday. This information was given in a notification issued by the Cabinet Secretariat on Sunday. Apart from being an experienced leader, Ishaq Dar is from Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party. According to the notification, this appointment has been made by Prime Minister Sharif with immediate effect and until further orders.
The announcement was made while both Prime Minister Sharif and Foreign Minister Dar are in Saudi Arabia to attend the World Economic Forum meeting. It is not clear what specific responsibilities Dar will undertake as deputy prime minister. Dar is considered close to former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif due to marital relations between the two families, as his son is Nawaz Sharif's son-in-law. Dar, a close associate of the Sharif family, has been finance minister in the last two governments. Serving as the Finance Minister for the fourth and last time in the previous Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition government, he was considered the party's answer to all economic problems.
Despite being the party's finance expert for decades, he was surprisingly made foreign minister when Prime Minister Sharif formed his cabinet in March. He was likely to be made the chairman of the Senate, the upper house of parliament, last month, but the PML-N tried to strike a deal with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) led by former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to garner support for the coalition government. After that he lagged behind in the race.
The party agreed to give the posts of Speaker and Senate Chairman to the PPP, leaving Dar with no option but to settle for some other role in the government. Even though former Prime Minister Imran Khan-backed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-backed independent candidates won the majority of seats in the 266-member National Assembly, the PML-N and PPP agreed to a power-sharing deal to form a coalition government and formed the government.
Hindusthan News/Ajit Tiwari/Akash
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