ISLAMABAD - President Asif Ali Zardari administered oath to the newly-elected Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and members of his Federal Cabinet at an impressive ceremony held at Aiwan-e-Sadr on Friday night.Addressing the ceremony President Asif Ali Zardari praised the role of former Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani for upholding the Constitution and his efforts to strengthen the Parliament. Expressing faith in the new PM’s leadership, he also wished Raja Pervez Ashraf and his Cabinet colleagues a new beginning and hoped they would also help strengthen democracy, ensure supremacy of the Constitution and devote their energies for the betterment of the masses.Apart from the former Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, the ceremony was attended by the Services Chiefs, Governors of Punjab and Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, Chief Ministers of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit Baltistan, Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Senate, Speaker National Assembly Fehmida Mirza and leaders of PPP and its allied parties.According to sources in the ruling alliance, another oath-taking ceremony is likely to be held soon for few more Ministers from the PML-Q who stayed away from the ceremony ostensibly on the pretext that they would take oath after change of their previous portfolios.Among those Cabinet members who took oath included 27 Federal Ministers and 11 Ministers of State.The Ministers who took oath from President Asif Ali Zardari include Nazar Muhammad Gondal, Firdous Ashiq Awan, Maula Bakhsh Chandio, Mian Manzoor Wattoo, Mir Hazar Khan Bijrani, Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, Khurshid Shah, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Farooq Sattar, Hina Rabbani Khar, Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Babar Ghouri, Dr Asim Hussain, Naveed Qamar, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Ahmed Mukhtar, Rana Farooq Saeed, Makhdoom Shahab, Dost Mohammad Mazari, Raheela Baloch, Engineer Shaukatullah, Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, Mir Changaiz Jamali , Tasneem Ahmed, Syed Samsam Bukhari, Sardar Saleem Haider, Malik Azmat Khan and Farzana Raja.

Trending Discussions

Musharraf had no authority to issue PCO: SC

Nawaz's call for peace talks welcomed by TTP

NAB to quiz Gilani, Raja

Chinese PM assures Nawaz of transferring civil nuclear ...