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Hina Rabbani Khar is Pakistan's youngest foreign minister

July 20, 2011

Hina Rabbani Khar has become the first woman to serve as Pakistani foreign minister. At 34 she is also the youngest ever foreign minister and took up her duties on Tuesday.

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Hina Rabbani Khar is the first woman to serve as Pakistani foreign minister
All eyes are on the youngest ever foreign minister in Pakistan's historyImage: picture alliance/dpa

In a statement the Pakistani Foreign Office in Islamabad announced, "At the advice of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, the President of Pakistan has decided to promote Hina Rabbani Khar to the post of foreign minister."

She took her oath before the acting president Farooq Naik on Tuesday as the incumbent president Asif Zardari was on a visit to Afghanistan at the time.

Hina has been given this important portfolio shortly before a key meeting with US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton at the ASEAN conference in Indonesia. From there she travels to India to participate in the ongoing bilateral ministerial level dialogue between the two nations.

High expectations

According to AFP, Pakistani analysts have raised questions over the appointment of Hina Rabbani Khar pointing to her lack of experience at the highest levels. Moreover experts doubt her ability to lead Pakistan’s foreign policy in these diplomatically challenging times.

Hina Rabbani Khar arrives at the parliament for a briefing on the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden
Hina Rabbani Khar has no easy task to shoulderImage: picture alliance/dpa

Political analyst Hassan Askari argued that "with the appointment of Hina Rabbani, the role of the foreign ministry will diminish in foreign policy decision making besides increasing the impression that foreign policy is decided at some other place." He claimed she would not be taken seriously at international level.

Hina Rabbani Khar comes from the Muzaffargarh district of Punjab. She served as a junior minister for economic affairs during the rule of former military dictator Pervez Musharraf. She joined the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party during the 2008 election campaign.

Former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was fired in February this year at the time of a cabinet reshuffle. The position of foreign minister has been vacant since then.

Autor: Hamad Kiani
Editor: Grahame Lucas