Pakistan: Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari Joins PM Sharif Cabinet As Foreign Minister, Hina Rabbani Khar Will Be His Deputy

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Wednes­day took oath as the country's foreign minister.

President Dr Arif Alvi administered the oath to the PPP chairman at a simple ceremony organised at Aiwan-i-Sadr (President's House).

The 33-year-old scion of the Bhutto-Zardari family will be Pakistan's youngest foreign minister. The only son of late Prime Minister Benazir and President Asif Ali Zardari, Bilawal was elevated as PPP chairman in 2007, days after the tragic assassination of his mother in Rawalpindi.

Bilawal made his parliamentary debut in 2018, winning from the family pocket borough of Larkana in Sindh.

Another party leader, Hina Rabbani Khar, has already been made the minister of state for foreign affairs.

Bilawal's first engagement after assuming office was a visit to the Chinese Embassy to express condolences with the ambassador over the lives of three Chinese nationals lost in a suicide bombing in Karachi on Tuesday.

Bilal will be accompanying PM Shehbaz Sharif today to Saudi Arabia, a key ally of Pakistan.

PPP supporters and sympathisers believe that Bilawal's new role will provide the necessary stature nationally and internationally. Incidentally, Bilawal's grandfather, former Prime Minister and PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto served as the foreign minister from 1963 to 1966.

Pakistan’s new foreign minister will have the onerous task of rebuilding strained relations with the US.

Addressing a press conference, Bilawal explained his reasons for joining PM Sharif’s cabinet, saying “one-sided decision making” was not possible and it was up to all the political parties to find solutions to the country’s problems collectively.

“We have to understand that this isn’t an ordinary coalition government. This unity government is a result of the parties on the opposition benches going to the treasury benches for the first time in the history of Pakistan." he added.