Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar appointed as deputy prime minister

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar was on Sunday appointed as the deputy prime minister of the country, according to a notification issued by the Cabinet Division.

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

According to the notification, the appointment was made by Prime Minister Sharif “with immediate effect and until further orders”.

Dar, a close Sharif family associate, has served as finance minister in two previous governments. He was considered the party's answer to all economic problems, serving as finance minister for the fourth and last time in the previous Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition government.

He was tipped to be made chairman of the Senate, the upper House of the Parliament last month, but lost the race after the PML-N made a deal with the former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari-led Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) to win its support for the coalition government.

The party agreed to give the president and chairman senate slot to the PPP, leaving Dar with no option but to settle for some other role in the government.

The PML-N and the PPP agreed on a power-sharing deal to form the coalition government even though the former prime minister Imran Khan-backed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-backed independents won majority seats at the 266-member National Assembly.