Pakistan's new Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Friday formed a cabinet filled with allies of toppled leader Nawaz Sharif, in a reshuffle that appears aimed at bolstering support ahead of general elections due in mid-2018.
Ishaq Dar, a powerful finance minister, returns in the same role, despite a criminal investigation ordered against him by the Supreme Court.
Ahsan Iqbal, head of a commission tasked with building the Beijing-funded $57 billion China-Pakistan Economic corridor, has been appointed Interior Minister.
Another staunch Sharif ally, Khawaja Asif, is to be Foreign Minister after having simultaneously run the ministries of defence and power.
The cabinet sworn in during a televised ceremony after a reading from the Koran holy book in the mainly Muslim nation of 190 million people.
There are 28 federal ministers and 19 state ministers in the new cabinet, almost double Sharif's 25-strong cabinet when he swept the 2013 polls.
"It's a massive cabinet," said Pakistani writer and analyst Zahid Hussain. "It shows that it's all about the next election."
But no decision appears to have yet been made by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party over whether Abbasi will stay as premier or step down after a brief period to make way for Sharif's brother Shahbaz, as outlined previously.
Nawaz Sharif resigned last week after the Supreme Court disqualified him for not declaring a source of income he denies receiving. But he retains control of PML-N and put forward Abbasi as temporary prime minister until Shahbaz becomes eligible to take over by winning a parliamentary by-election.
Since Abbasi's election, however, the party leadership no longer seems sure about that plan, as some fear Shahbaz's departure from his position as chief minister of eastern Punjab state could weaken the party's grip on a core base of voters.
Pakistan's mix of political parties means that whoever wins Punjab, which is home to more than half the country's population, is likely to form the next government.
The opposition has criticised the PML-N's focus on large infrastructure projects as vote-focused measures that saddle Pakistan with debt, at the expense of schools and hospitals.
"If they carry on with Nawaz Sharif's policies, the country will go deeper into debt," said Naeem Ul Haq, of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party.