AIRLINK 75.20 Increased By ▲ 1.50 (2.04%)
BOP 4.90 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
CNERGY 4.45 Decreased By ▼ -0.07 (-1.55%)
DFML 43.40 Decreased By ▼ -1.48 (-3.3%)
DGKC 84.65 Decreased By ▼ -0.85 (-0.99%)
FCCL 21.24 Decreased By ▼ -0.16 (-0.75%)
FFBL 32.47 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.12%)
FFL 9.50 Decreased By ▼ -0.09 (-0.94%)
GGL 10.16 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-1.07%)
HASCOL 6.97 Decreased By ▼ -0.16 (-2.24%)
HBL 114.50 Decreased By ▼ -0.20 (-0.17%)
HUBC 139.10 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
HUMNL 12.17 Decreased By ▼ -0.25 (-2.01%)
KEL 4.95 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-1.59%)
KOSM 4.40 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-1.12%)
MLCF 37.25 Decreased By ▼ -0.35 (-0.93%)
OGDC 134.05 Decreased By ▼ -2.75 (-2.01%)
PAEL 25.25 Decreased By ▼ -0.14 (-0.55%)
PIBTL 6.64 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.75%)
PPL 119.15 Decreased By ▼ -1.85 (-1.53%)
PRL 26.36 Decreased By ▼ -0.23 (-0.86%)
PTC 13.79 Decreased By ▼ -0.31 (-2.2%)
SEARL 56.99 Decreased By ▼ -0.31 (-0.54%)
SNGP 66.94 Decreased By ▼ -1.06 (-1.56%)
SSGC 10.32 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-0.96%)
TELE 8.33 Decreased By ▼ -0.12 (-1.42%)
TPLP 10.90 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-0.73%)
TRG 62.90 Decreased By ▼ -0.44 (-0.69%)
UNITY 27.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.18%)
WTL 1.35 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-2.17%)
BR100 7,913 Decreased By -27.3 (-0.34%)
BR30 25,403 Decreased By -245 (-0.96%)
KSE100 75,322 Decreased By -195.6 (-0.26%)
KSE30 24,187 Decreased By -90.5 (-0.37%)

RAMALLAH: A new Palestinian government in the West Bank was sworn in on Wednesday at a ceremony in the West Bank town of Ramallah, in a move that has angered the Hamas government in Gaza.

Ministers, including returning prime minister Salam Fayyad, took the oath of office in the presence of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

The swearing in of the 25-member government comes more than a year after the last cabinet resigned in February 2011.

At the time, the Palestinian leadership had said it would hold legislative and presidential elections "in the coming months," and Abbas tasked Fayyad with forming a new government.

But the process was put on ice after the surprise announcement in April 2011 of a reconciliation deal between Abbas's Fatah movement and its Islamist rival, Hamas.

The agreement called for the creation of an interim cabinet of independents selected by the two factions, which would prepare for elections that were rescheduled to happen by May 2012.

The deal has largely stalled, and Abbas said on Wednesday that the impasse had left his administration paralysed, spurring him to call for the formation of a new cabinet.

But the Hamas government in Gaza slammed the decision to form a new cabinet, accusing Abbas's Palestinian Authority and the Fatah movement he heads of abandoning reconciliation.

"This strengthens the division," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP, saying it "shows clearly that the Palestinian Authority and Fatah are far from implementing" the unity agreement.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2012

Comments

Comments are closed.