Islamabad
\nn a surprise move, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has been appointed as deputy prime minister of the country, according to a notification issued by the Cabinet Division on Sunday.
\n\u201cThe Prime Minister has been pleased to designate Mr Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, as Deputy Prime Minister with immediate effect and until further orders,\u201d read the notification.
\nDar was appointed as the country\u2019s foreign minister after the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) formed a coalition government following the February 8 elections.
\nDar, 73, a chartered accountant and a seasoned politician, is also a close relative of, and close aide to, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif.
\nThe appointment of four-time finance minister as foreign minister suggested a ramped up role for economics in the nation\u2019s diplomacy as the country tries to secure another International Monetary Fund Deal and shore up external financing from foreign capitals.
\n\u201cEconomic diplomacy is the need of the hour for sure,\u201d Dar had told Reuters following his appointment in March.
\nBefore Dar\u2019s appointment, then Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leader Pervaiz Elahi remained the only national politician who was appointed country\u2019s deputy prime minister on June 25, 2012 after the-then ruling Pakistan People\u2019s Party and the PML-Q had forged a political alliance at the Centre.
\nLast month Dar was named as the country\u2019s foreign minister. He has earlier served as finance minister from 1998 to 1999, then from March to May 2008.
\nDar again led the finance ministry from 2013 to 2017 and then from 2022 to 2023. He has also served the country as minister for industry and investment from February 1997 to July 1997 as well as commerce from December 1997 to October 1999. Previously, Dar was named as the Leader of Opposition in the Senate from March 2012 to June 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamabad n a surprise move, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has been appointed as deputy prime minister of the country, according to a notification issued by the Cabinet Division on Sunday. \u201cThe Prime Minister has been pleased to designate Mr Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, as Deputy Prime Minister with immediate effect and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":61182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63940"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63961,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63940\/revisions\/63961"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}