PPP's Sardar Salim Haider takes oath as 40th Punjab governor

Sardar Salim Haider Khan of the PPP was sworn in as the new governor of Punjab, succeeding Balighur Rehman on Friday.

Lahore High Court Chief Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmed Khan administered the oath during a ceremony attended by PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and other dignitaries.

The oath-taking event faced two delays at the request of the PML-N, as outgoing governor Balighur Rehman was in Saudi Arabia.

Sardar Salim, now the 40th governor of Punjab, hails from Fateh Jhang tehsil in Attock district. In the 2002 general elections, he contested the provincial assembly constituency PP-18 (Attock-IV) as a PPP candidate but didn't secure victory. Despite garnering 37,140 votes, he lost to Malik Muhammad Anwar of the Pakistan Muslim League (Q).

In the 2008 general elections, Salim won a seat in the National Assembly from NA-59 (Attock-III) as a PPP candidate, receiving 71,400 votes and defeating PML-Q's Waseem Gulzar.

Salim joined then Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's federal cabinet in November 2008 as Minister of State for Defence Production, serving until February 2011. He resumed his role as Minister of State for Defence under Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf from June 2012 to March 2013.