Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar appointed as deputy prime minister
Islamabad, Apr 28: In a surprise move, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar was on Sunday appointed as the country's deputy prime minister.
Dar, 73, a chartered accountant and a veteran politician, belongs to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party.
According to a notification issued by the Cabinet Division, the appointment was made by Prime Minister Sharif "with immediate effect and until further orders".
The announcement was made when both Prime Minister Sharif and Foreign Minister Dar were away in Saudi Arabia to attend a World Economic Forum's moot.
It was clear what specific responsibilities Dar would perform as deputy prime minister as traditionally, all powers are concentrated in the prime minister, who is the head of the government.
Dar is considered close to former premier Nawaz Sharif due to matrimonial links between the two families, as his son is the son-in-law of the elder Sharif.
He has served as finance minister in two previous governments. He was considered the party's answer to all economic problems, serving as finance minister for the fourth and last time in the previous Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition government.
Despite being the party's go-to finance expert for decades, he was surprisingly made the foreign minister when Prime Minister Sharif shaped his cabinet in March.
Dar was tipped to be made chairman of the Senate, the upper House of the Parliament, but lost the race last month after the PML-N made a deal with the former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari-led Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) to win its support for the coalition government.
The party agreed to give the president and chairman senate slot to the PPP, leaving Dar with no option but to settle for some other role in the government.
The PML-N and the PPP agreed on a power-sharing deal to form the coalition government even though the former prime minister Imran Khan-backed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-backed independents won majority seats at the 266-member National Assembly.
It is not the first time a deputy prime minister has been appointed. Chaudhry Parvez Elahi served as Deputy Prime Minister during the tenure of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) from June 25, 2012, to June 29, 2013. His role at that time was mostly symbolic as he was rewarded by then-President Asif Ali Zardari for supporting the PPP government.
Elahi is currently president of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and is in jail due to allegations of corruption.
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Melinda French Gates resigns as Gates Foundation co-chair, 3 years after her divorce from Bill Gates
New York, May 13: Melinda French Gates will step down as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the nonprofit she and her ex-husband Bill Gates founded and built into one of the world's largest philanthropic organisations over the past 20 years.
“This is not a decision I came to lightly,” French Gates posted on the X platform on Monday. “I am immensely proud of the foundation that Bill and I built together and of the extraordinary work it is doing to address inequities around the world.”
She praised the foundation's CEO, Mark Suzman, and the foundation's board of trustees, which was significantly expanded after the couple announced their divorce in May 2021.
“The time is right for me to move forward into the next chapter of my philanthropy,” French Gates wrote in her statement. She organises some of her investments and philanthropic gifts through her organisation, Pivotal Ventures, which is not a nonprofit.
Bill Gates thanked French Gates for her “critical” contributions to the foundations in a statement, saying, “I am sorry to see her leave, but I am sure she will have a huge impact in her future philanthropic work.”
French Gates will receive $12.5 billion as part of her agreement with Gates, which she said would commit to future work focused on women and families.
The Gates Foundation did not immediately return a request for comment about whether those assets would come from the foundation itself. In an emailed statement, the foundation said that Suzman announced the decision to employees on Monday.
“After a difficult few years watching women's rights rolled back in the US and around the world, she wants to use this next chapter to focus specifically on altering that trajectory,” Suzman said of French Gates.
Suzman said he knew many had joined the foundation in part because of their admiration for her advocacy, especially around gender equity.
“I know how beloved Melinda is here,” Suzman wrote.
The Gates Foundation holds $75.2 billion in its endowment as of December 2023, and announced in January, it planned to spend $8.6 billion through the course of its work in 2024.
The Associated Press receives financial support for news coverage in Africa from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and for news coverage of women in the workforce from Pivotal Ventures.
