Ex-Pak finance minister Ishaq Dar likely to be Foreign Minister: Report

Former finance minister Ishaq Dar is likely to be appointed as Pakistan's foreign minister, a media report said on Friday as newly-elected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif mulls options for the Cabinet.

Dar, 73, would be the handed over the foreign ministry portfolio in the Cabinet, Geo News reported, quoting sources.

Meanwhile, former caretaker ex-minister and former foreign secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani would serve as the advisor to the prime minister on external affairs and another former diplomat and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Tariq Fatemi would be made special assistant on foreign affairs, the report said.

Dar, a close Sharif family associate who served as finance minister in two previous governments, was also present in a meeting that prime minister Shehbaz Sharif held with Jilani on Thursday, according to sources.

During the meeting, Jilani briefed the prime minister about developments in various foreign affairs during the caretaker set-up.

Until recently, Dar, a close aide of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, 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.

Apparently, Dar lost the powerful establishment's backing and faced opposition from his party due to his failure to address the economic woos during his last round as the finance minister.

It is believed that his reluctance and delay in addressing the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concerns aggravated economic problems.

Initially, he was tipped to be made chairman of the Senate, the upper House of the Parliament, 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.

According to sources, 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 a new 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.

The PML-N Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was elected as the cash-strapped country's prime minister for a second time.

The new government's foreign policy and its relations with other countries, including neighbours, would be known after the formation of the Cabinet, the Foreign Office has said.

"As you know, the Cabinet formation has yet to take place, and once the Cabinet is in place, we will have a direction with regard to foreign policy and Pakistan's relations with other countries, including its neighbours. We would then be in a better position to respond to queries on how this will impact Pakistan's interaction with India in the coming days," Mumtaz Zahra Baloch.

She added that Pakistan would like to have good relations with all its neighbours, including India, but these relations must be based on respect and equality.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)