ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Wednesday took oath as a federal minister, and is appointed as foreign minister in a ceremony on Wednesday.

Former president Asif Ali Zardari, Aseefa Bhutto Zardari  attended the oath taking ceremony. Meanwhile,  Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah also attended the ceremony. Senior PPP leaders – federal ministers and Sindh ministers – were present in the oath taking ceremony.

Bilawal was present at the time when the initial federal cabinet members took oath, however, he did not take the oath that time. Bilawal (33) would be the youngest to become Pakistan’s foreign minister.

Read more: Hina Rabbani Khar takes charge as State Minister for Foreign Affairs

Earlier, a day after the official notification, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif took back the portfolio of Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs from Syed Tariq Fatemi. He nonetheless remains special assistant to prime minister however his new portfolio is yet to be decided.

The development came ahead of Pakistan Peoples Party chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s meeting with Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) supermo Nawaz Sharif in London. Senator Sherry Rehman and Khurshid Shah have also departed on a seprate flight.

It is pertinent to mention here that Fatemi, who was a former envoy, had earlier been the Special Assistant to the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for Foreign Affairs from 2013 to 2017.

The second well-known identification was that Tariq Fatemi was one of the key figures who were named in the Dawn leaks scandal and he was deprived of his office due to his alleged involvement in this scandal.