KARACHI - Pakistan swore in a caretaker Cabinet under interim Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar in Islamabad on Thursday, with fresh elections due to be held in November or later.

The government’s top priority is economic stabilisation, with the US$350 billion (S$475 billion) economy on a narrow recovery path after getting a last-minute US$3 billion bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund, averting a sovereign debt default.

Economic reforms implemented so far have led to historic levels of inflation and high interest rates, however. The top challenge for the caretaker government and its successor remains the stabilisation of the economy.

Mr Kakar was sworn in on Monday after President Arif Alvi dissolved Parliament last week on the advice of outgoing prime minister Shehbaz Sharif.

On Thursday, Mr Kakar appointed the new Cabinet, which was later sworn in by Mr Alvi.

Under Pakistan’s Constitution, a neutral caretaker government will oversee elections that must be held within 90 days of the dissolution of Parliament’s Lower House which means early November.

However, the ballot may be delayed as the election commission has to draw new boundaries for hundreds of federal and provincial constituencies. After that, it will give an election date.

Later on Thursday, the election commission said new constituencies would be finalised by Dec 14, state television reported.

In the interim Cabinet, former central bank chief Shamshad Akhtar was appointed finance minister, and Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United States, Mr Jalil Abbas Jilani, was named foreign minister, the new Information Minister Murtaza Solangi said.

Other names in the Cabinet include former provincial minister Sarfaraz Bugti as interior minister and Ms Mishaal Malik, the wife of jailed Kashmiri leader Yaseen Malik, as minister for human rights. REUTERS