President Pervez Musharraf administered the oath of office to the new ministers at a ceremony at Aiwan-e-Sadr, which was attended among others by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, PML chief Shujaat Hussain, federal ministers and senior officials.
Sikandar Hayat Bosan was administered the oath of office as federal minister, who has been assigned the portfolio of Food, Agriculture and Livestock.
The Ministers of State and their portfolios are: Hamid Yar Hiraj, Commerce Division; Engr. Muhammad Shahid Jamil Qureshi, Communication Division; Muhammad Ali Durrani, Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs Division; Zahid Hamid, Defence Division; Ms. Hina Rabbani Khar, Economic Affairs Division; Ms. Ghulam Bibi Bharwana, Education Division; Malik Amin Aslam Khan, Environment Division; Omar Ayub Khan, Finance Division; Muhammad Ali Malkani, Food, Agriculture and Livestock Division; Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Foreign Affairs Division; Begum Shahnaz Shaikh, Health Division; Sardar Muhammad Asif Nakai, Housing and Works Division; Ali Nawaz Khan Maher, Industries, Production and Special Initiatives Division; Miss. Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli, Information and Broadcasting Division; Ali Asjad Malhi, Information Technology and Telecommunications Division; Dr Shahzad Waseem, Interior Division; Ch. Shahid Akram Bhinder, Law, Justice and Human Rights Division; Ch. Zafar Iqbal Warraich, Local Government and Rural Development Division; Tariq Azim Khan, Overseas Pakistanis Division; Muhammad Raza Hayat Harraj, Parliamentary Affairs Division; Mir Muhammad Naseer Khan Mengal, Petroleum and Natural Resources Division; Umar Ahmad Ghuman, Privatisation and Investment Division; Ishaq Khan Khakwani, Railways Division; Dr Aamer Liaquat Hussain, Religious Affairs and Zakat & Ushr Division; Ms. Sumaira Malik, Tourism Division; Engr. Amir Muqam, Water and Power Division.
All, except Munir and Khalid Lund, who were state ministers in the Jamali and Shujaat cabinets have been retained in the new setup, indicating that 'Don't rock the boat' seems to have been the prime consideration in forming the cabinet.
Greatly surprised by the enormous size of the new federal cabinet and the induction of first-timers, political analysts in the capital say that 'the more the merrier' has replaced the original slogan of 'small is beautiful'. They attribute this phenomenon to two possible considerations on the part of leadership. First, the government understands that given the prevalent political culture of Pakistan it cannot afford to earn the displeasure of any member, much less of a coalition partner. Everybody is asking for his pound of flesh and that leaves the government with no other option but to absorb as many as possible, analysts said.
About three dozen parliamentary secretaries and almost the same number as chairmen of house committees already in place the 60 inducted in the cabinet would raise the taken-care-of members to about half of the ruling numbers strength in both the houses. For the rest some "alternatives" can be explored, they added.
Secondly, one discerns that while inducting the young members in the cabinet the known political families have been accommodated instead of creating space for experience of the old and talent of the young. This scheme of things hints at the possibility of an early general election, the analysts added.