Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday appointed Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, son of assassinated former premier Benazir Bhutto, as foreign minister. President Arif Alvi administered oath to 33-year-old Bilawal at a simple ceremony at the Aiwan-i-Sadr (President’s House), where Prime Minister Sharif was also present.
Bilawal took the oath nearly a week after he met Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif in London last week during which they discussed the “overall political situation” in Pakistan and vowed to work together on issues pertaining to politics and national interest.PPP is the second largest party in the current coalition government of Prime Minister Sharif who was appointed on April 11.The absence of Bilawal the son of former two-time prime minister Benazir Bhutto and former president Asif Ali Zardari in the first phase of Cabinet formation last week had raised many eyebrows. His mother Benazir was assassinated at an election campaign rally in 2007, and his grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto — also a former foreign minister and later prime minister — was hanged by a military dictator in 1979.