Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar appointed Deputy Prime Minister

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In a surprise move, Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar was appointed the country’s Deputy Prime Minister on Sunday.

Dar, 73, a chartered accountant and veteran politician, is from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party.

According to a notification issued by the Cabinet Division, the appointment was 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 were in Saudi Arabia to attend the World Economic Forum meeting.

It was clear what specific responsibilities Dar would undertake as Deputy Prime Minister because traditionally, all powers are concentrated in the Prime Minister, who is the head of government.

Dar is considered close to former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif due to marital relations between the two families, as his son is the elder Sharif’s son-in-law.

He has served as 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.

Dar was likely to be made the chairman of the Senate, the upper house of parliament, but he lost the race last month after the PML-N struck a deal with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) led by former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. Its support to the coalition government.

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.

The PML-N and PPP agreed to a power-sharing deal to form a coalition government, even as former Prime Minister Imran Khan-backed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-backed independents won the majority of seats in the 266-member National Assembly.

This is not the first time that a Deputy Prime Minister has been appointed. Chaudhry Pervez Ilahi served as the Deputy Prime Minister from 25 June 2012 to 29 June 2013 during the tenure of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). His role at that time was mostly symbolic as he was rewarded by the then President Asif Ali Zardari. To support PPP government.

Ilahi is currently the president of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and is in jail due to corruption charges.