ISLAMABAD: With some heavyweights being dropped, 21 federal ministers and one minister of state were sworn in on Friday to complete the first phase of the “lean and mean” federal cabinet, as Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani kept the charge of eight ministries with him and picked four new faces for his new team.
President Asif Zardari administered the oath to the new cabinet. Those who had been dropped did not attend the oath-taking ceremony. Shah Mahmood Qureshi was on his way to the Presidency to take the oath, but decided not to be part of the cabinet when he was told that he would be given the Water and Power portfolio. Notably among those who have been ignored were Qamar Zaman Kaira, Parvez Ashraf, Nazar Gondal, Waqar Ahmad Khan and Assef Ahmed Ali. However, Dr Firdous Ashiq succeeded in clinching the slot of information minister. The ministries the PM has decided to keep with him are Petroleum and Natural Resources, Water and Power, Human Rights, Information Technology and Telecommunication, Defence Production, Overseas Pakistanis, Ports and Shipping, and Housing and Works. Eighteen of these 21 federal ministers were part of the previous cabinet. The only minister of state, Hina Rabbani Khar, was also in the previous cabinet but her portfolio had been changed. Seventeen of the ministers belong to the ruling PPP, while one each from the ANP, FATA, BNP-Awami and PML-F. Eight ministers are from Punjab, seven from Sindh, three from Balochistan, two from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one from FATA. The portfolios of Manzoor Wattoo, Ahmed Mukhtar, Babar Awan, Rehman Malik, Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Khursheed Shah, Amin Fahim, Hazar Khan Bijrani, Arbab Alamgir, Ghulam Bilour and Shahbaz Bhatti remained unchanged. Firdous Ashiq, Samina Khalid, Makhdoom Shahabuddin, Naveed Qamar, Khuda Bakhsh Rajar and Israrullah Zehri were given new assignments. Raza Rabbani with the portfolio of inter-provincial coordination, Engr Shaukatullah (SAFRON), Mir Changez Khan Jamali (science and technology) and Sardar Umar Gorage (postal services) made it to the federal cabinet for the first time.
