11 new ministers inducted in Pakistan

Islamabad, April 13 (IANS) Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani expanded his council of ministers Friday with the induction of 11 new faces.

President Asif Ali Zardari administered the oath of office to five new ministers and six new ministers of state at the Presidency in Islamabad, Dawn News reported.

Qamar Zama Karia, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Nazar Mohammad Gondal, Farooq Saeed Khan and Farzana Raja are the new ministers.

Tariq Anees, Raheela Baloch, Abbas Afridi, Moazzam Jatoi, Samsam Bukhari, Tasneem Qureshi are the new ministers of state.

All 11 belong to the Pakistan Peoples Party that leads the ruling coalition, whose partners Awami National Party (ANP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) were left out in the cold.

The new appointment takes the number of ministers to 35 and of ministers of state to 18.

The portfolios of the new appointees were not immediately known.

However, sources told Dawn that Qamar Zaman Kaira may replace Firdous Ashiq Awan as the information and broadcasting minister.

Earlier, it was speculated that Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan's first woman foreign minister who was conspicuous by her absence from Zardari's entourage on his Sunday visit to India, may be on her way out.

The News International said speculation was doing the rounds in the foreign office that Khar may be given a new portfolio in an upcoming cabinet reshuffle and a new foreign minister would lead talks with New Delhi.