“The Prime Minister has been pleased to designate Mr. Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, as Deputy Prime Minister with immediate effect,” a Pakistan government gazette posted by the foreign ministry read.

Dar will continue in his role as foreign minister, Pakistani media said.

The appointment comes a month after Pakistan’s parliament elected Shehbaz Sharif as prime minister after a national election marred by mobile internet shutdown, arrests, and violence.

Pakistan struggled for over four months to lock in a stand-by arrangement with the International Monetary Fund last summer when Dar was finance minister, and it took the intervention of his prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, to secure a last-ditch deal.

Dar has also regularly criticised the IMF on public platforms in the middle of negotiations, and has long favoured market interventions to prop up the Pakistani rupee – something the IMF has warned against.