Morocco gets its first woman prime minister: Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri forms a 31-member government

Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri has become Morocco's first woman prime minister. King Mohammed VI formally appointed her government on Friday 16 October, AFP reported via ARY News. After her audience with the king, she promised an "ambitious government programme that can meet citizens' expectations."

The coalition

El Mansouri leads the centre-right Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), which came first in Morocco's September election, a vote with the lowest turnout in nearly 20 years. She governs with the right-wing Istiqlal party and two smaller left-wing parties. Together the four hold 210 of the 395 seats in parliament, a working majority of 12.

Who is in the cabinet

• 31 ministers in all, of whom 13 served in the previous government.
• Nasser Bourita stays as foreign minister, the face of Morocco's diplomacy for close to a decade.
• Abdelouafi Laftit stays as interior minister.
• Fouzi Lekjaa, newly with PAM, moves from budget minister to economy minister. He also heads the Royal Moroccan Football Federation.
• Seven women, counting the prime minister, the same number as in the outgoing government.

What she inherits

The cost of living, jobs and inequality were voters' main concerns in the campaign. The new government also has to keep preparations on track for the 2030 FIFA World Cup, which Morocco co-hosts with Spain and Portugal, and Lekjaa's double role puts the economy and the tournament in the same hands.

Why readers in Pakistan may care

Pakistan and Morocco are both OIC members, and with Bourita staying on, Islamabad keeps the same counterpart at the foreign ministry. For Pakistani women in politics, the appointment adds one more Muslim-majority country to the short list that has had a woman head of government, a list Pakistan joined first with Benazir Bhutto in 1988.

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