Caretaker Cabinet in Pakistan: Appointment of new Caretaker Cabinet before elections, Shamshad Akhtar Finance, Jalil Abbas Foreign Minister

Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar on Thursday appointed a new cabinet ahead of national elections due in early November. Broadcaster Geo News reported citing sources that former US ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani was named foreign minister and former central bank chief Shamshad Akhtar was appointed finance minister as part of the new caretaker cabinet. The cabinet of newly appointed Caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar was sworn in at a ceremony at Aiwan-e-Sadr in Islamabad on Thursday. President Arif Alvi administered the oath to the caretaker federal ministers.

Names of several retired bureaucrats, businessmen and other personalities were doing the rounds in the media as possible caretaker ministers, but there was no confirmation as to who would be assigned which portfolio. Some of the names reported by the media who were likely to be part of the new set-up include former police chiefs Dr. Shoaib Sudle and Zulfiqar Cheema, Balochistan Awami Party Senator Sarfaraz Bugti, former Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani, Minister Hafiz Sheikh , former federal minister Muhammad Ali Durrani, and lawyer Muhammad Ahsan Bhun.