Third Sharif ministry

Third Sharif ministry
cabinet of Pakistan
Incumbent
Date formed	7 June 2013
People and organisations
Head of government	Nawaz Sharif
Head of state	Mamnoon Hussain
Member party	Pakistan Muslim League (N)
Status in legislature	Simple majority
Opposition party	Pakistan Peoples Party
Opposition leader	Khurshid Shah
History
Election(s)	2013
Incoming formation	Government formation
Predecessor	Khoso caretaker ministry

The third Sharif ministry was formed at noon PST on 5 June 2013 when Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif became the prime minister of Pakistan for the third time. Sharif successfully led the right-of-centre and conservative PML-N to acquire a simple majority, after failing to acquire an overall two-thirds majority, in the 2013 general election against the leftist Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the centrist Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Government formation

Following the 2013 general election, the Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N) won a plurality of seats in the National Assembly through a simple majority, after failing to secure an overall two-thirds majority. In order to form a government, the PML-N joined in coalition with the Pakistan Muslim League (F) (PML-F) and the National Peoples Party (NPP).

Cabinet

2013—

On 7 June 2013, Sharif's cabinet of 25 ministers was sworn into office which included 16 federal ministers and nine ministers of state. Most of the ministers in Sharif's cabinet were from Punjab which is a political stronghold of the PML-N with one member each from the PML-F and NPP also included in the cabinet. The cabinet included 19 ministers from Punjab, three from Sindh, two from Balochistan and one from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – only two of which were women.

Third Sharif Cabinet appointees

Changes

• 27 November 2013 – Khawaja Muhammad Asif and Pervez Rasheed are given additional charges of the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights respectively.
• 16 January 2014 – Khurram Dastgir Khan is elevated from the Ministry of State and sworn in as designate federal minister. Khan is later assigned as the federal minister for the Ministry of Commerce. With the induction of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) into the coalition government, JUI-F ministers Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri and Akram Khan Durrani are made designate federal minister and designate minister of state respectively, while independent FATA legislator Abbas Afridi is also sworn in as designate federal minister.

Major initiatives and actions

Foreign Policy Actions

• • Responding to the 2014 Jinnah International Airport attack
    • Launching the Operation Zarb-e-Azb and Operation Khyber-1
      • Enforcement and initiation of the National Action Plan against the terrorism
      • Initiated policies to provide commitment to work with President Ashraf Ghani on stabilizing Afghanistan
    • Renewed commitment towards completing the Iran–Pakistan gas pipeline as part of the Energy security legislation.
    • Establishing the National Intelligence Directorate
    • Initiated the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor

• Economic Policy Actions
  • Launched the privatization process in Pakistan
    • Launched the Pakistan Vision 2025
    • Legislation to improve taxation system
  • Responding to the Late 2000s recession
• Domestic Policy Actions
  • Education
    • Release funds for Higher Education Commission to focus on higher education research.
  • Social Policy
    • Prime Minister’s Youth Programme
    • Increasing the scope of the Benazir Income Support Programme
  • Other
    • Extended the Operation Madad in responding to 2014 Pakistan floods

• National Security Actions
  • Reconstitute the National Security Council to maintain balance in civil military relations
    • Appointment of Sartaj Aziz as the National Security Advisor (NSA)
    • Continuation of the Nuclear power programme–2050 as part of the Energy security legislation.
    • Establishing military courts commissions for terror suspects
    • Protection of Pakistan Ordinance No. 2014
    • Establishing the National Counter Terrorism Authority
• Constitutional Actions
  • XXI Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan