Senator Shaukat Tarin was administered oath as the Federal Minister of Finance and Revenue by President Dr Arif Alvi on Monday.

The swearing-in ceremony was held at the Aiwan-e-Sadr in Islamabad. After the oath, the president also extended felicitations to the newly-sworn in member of the federal cabinet.

The ceremony was attended by federal and provincial ministers, State Bank of Pakistan Governor Reza Baqir and other senior government officers.

Tarin, who was earlier serving as an adviser to the prime minister on finance and revenue, was elected as a senator last week in the by-election for a general seat of the Senate from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The seat was vacated after the resignation of PTI’s Ayub Afridi.

Information Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain congratulated Tarin on taking oath as a federal minister.

In a statement, Chaudhry said that the business community had high hopes from Tarin as the finance minister.

He remarked that Tarin's efforts to eradicate poverty from the country, promote the construction industry and stabilise the national economy were commendable.

Chaudhry added that Tarin as a federal minister would play an important role in the country's economic development.

The information minister expressed his best wishes for Tarin and prayed for his success as the finance minister.

Success on second attempt

Tarin was appointed as the finance minister on April 17 and his constitutional tenure ended on October 16 after which he was appointed as the finance adviser to the prime minister. According to the Constitution, in order to continue as the finance minister for longer than six months, Tarin needed to be elected to parliament.

His election as a senator and retaking the post of finance minister brought success for the government in its second attempt at such a manoeuvre.

The government had previously tried to get former finance minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, who was also not a member of parliament, elected to the Senate.

Shaikh was appointed as the finance minister in December 2020 and was the government's candidate for the hotly contested general seat from Islamabad in March's Senate elections.

But in a blow to the government, Shaikh lost to the joint opposition candidate Yousuf Raza Gilani — a result which led the premier to seek a vote of confidence from the National Assembly to show he still held the majority.

Shaikh was later removed as finance minister on March 29 and was replaced with PTI's Hammad Azhar, who was shortly replaced with Tarin.