In a surprise move, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has been appointed as the country’s deputy prime minister, the cabinet announced on Sunday.
In the notification, “Prime Minister, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, Muhammad Ishaq Dar has been appointed as Deputy Prime Minister with immediate effect.
Dar was appointed as the country’s foreign minister after the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) formed a coalition government after the February 8 elections.
The four-time appointment of the finance minister as foreign minister has suggested a more important role for the economy in the country’s diplomacy as the country tries to secure an International Monetary Fund agreement and seek external funding from foreign capital.
“Economic diplomacy is definitely the need of the hour,” he said.
Prior to Dar’s appointment, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leader Pervaiz Elahi remained the only national politician to be appointed deputy prime minister after the then ruling Pakistan People’s Party and PML-Q was kidnapped on June 25, 2012. . political union at the center.
Dar was appointed as the country’s foreign minister last month. Before that, he was the finance minister from 1998 to 1999 and then from March to May 2008.
He was the Minister of Industry and Investment from February 1997 to July 1997, and Trade from December 1997 to October 1999. Dar Vardy was previously the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate from March 2012 to June 2013.
The appointment coincided with Prime Minister Shehbaz and Dar, along with other ministers, in Saudi Arabia to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) Special Meeting on Global Cooperation, Development and Energy.
According to the notification, Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif has been appointed “with immediate effect and until orders are issued”.
The last Deputy Prime Minister of the country before Dar assumed the post was the then PML-Q’s Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, who was appointed to the post in June 2012.
Dar served as Minister of Trade and Investment in the Nawaz Sharif government from 1997-99 and twice as Federal Minister of Finance, Economic Affairs, Revenue and Statistics (1998-99 and 2008).
Before assuming his first post as a federal minister, he was appointed Minister of State/Executive Director of the Pakistan Investment Board (PIB) from 1992 to 1993. He was also the President of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
He also served as the finance minister in Prime Minister Nawaz’s government in 2013.
Dar was appointed as Pakistan’s finance minister from September 2022 until the end of August 2023 when the coalition government was formed.
Despite being PML-N’s finance expert for decades, he was appointed foreign minister in March this year when Prime Minister Shehbaz picked a new cabinet when his favorite finance portfolio went to Muhammad Aurangzeb.
Dar has long been seen as a key part of Nawaz Sharif’s inner circle. The 2017 Dawn editorial said that under Nawaz’s leadership, “the former finance minister has been influential at the highest level, acting like a deputy prime minister as the head of more than four committees in various areas.”
Despite his experience, his policies and attitudes are widely criticized. In a statement to DawnNewsTV on the Doosra Ruh program in February, PPP leader Khurshid Shah said that the party was against the appointment of Ishaq Dar as finance minister.
Asked whether austerity could fix Pakistan’s economy, Shah replied: “Austerity can’t save the economy; it does the damage.”
PPP leader Faisal Karim Kundi today said that his party is not against the appointment of Ishaq Dar as Deputy Prime Minister and said that the previous PPP government had also appointed a Deputy Prime Minister.
