Islamabad: State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar became Pakistan’s youngest and first female Foreign Minister on Tuesday after she was sworn in by acting President Farooq H Naik.
Khar had emerged as a front-runner in the race for the slot of Foreign Minister, which has been vacant since previous incumbent Shah Mahmood Qureshi was removed during a cabinet reshuffle in February apparently due to his differences with the party leadership over Raymond Davis saga.
She is the daughter of veteran politician Malik Ghulam Noor Rabbani Khar and the niece of former Punjab governor and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Malik Ghulam Mustafa Khar.
She was a member of the Pakistan Muslim League -Q (PML-Q) party during former military ruler Pervez Musharraf’s regime and joined the ruling PPP ahead of the 2008 general election.
