Hisham Qandeel unveils new Egyptian cabinet

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi (right) meets with PM Hisham Qandil on July 24 Egypt’s new Prime Minister Hisham Qandeel has finalised the country’s new cabinet, Egypt's state-run TV said on Wednesday. At least six ministers from the former government led by Kamal al-Ganzouri are set to retain their posts, while the most significant changes have taken place in the ministries of interior, petroleum, investment, tourism, endowments and local development. The new government is expected to take oath before President Mohammed Morsi on Thursday.
The newly appointed ministers include 3 ministers from President Morsi's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), which is the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.  Three other ministers are known to be affiliated with the dissolved National Democratic Party, the ruling party during Hosni Mubarak's era, while the other parties will be represented by only one minister. The rest of the cabinet will consist of a mix of technocrats and bureaucrats.
The final cabinet may come as a surprise for many observers, as there have been rumours that the FJP will hold at least 10 cabinet portfolios, while another 12 portfolios will be devoted to representatives of various political parties.
According to Egypt's state run TV, the FJP ministers are Mostafa Mosaad, former FJP education official, who is appointed education minister; Tarek Wafiq, head of the FJP's housing committee, appointed minister of housing; and Osama Yassin, the FJP's chairman of the dissolved parliament's youth committee, appointed minister of youth.
Three ministers who were belonging to Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP) are included in Qandeel's cabinet; President of al-Azhar University Osama el-Abd has been chosen to head the ministry of religious endowments – Awqaf. He was a member of the NDP's politburo. General Ahmed Zaki Abdine was appointed as a minister of administrative development he served as a governor of Kafr al-Sheikh and Beni Sueif under Mubarak's rule. Chairman of the Electricity Holding Company, Mahmoud Balbaa was appointed minister of power.  He was known to be a member of the NDP.
Al least six ministers of Ganzouri's Cabinet will retain their seats: Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr and Finance Minister Mumtaz al-Saeed, Nadia Zakhary minister of scientific research, Nagwa Khalil minister of insurance and social affairs, and Mohamed Ibrahim as minister of antiquities.
Head of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) Hussein Tantawi is also to keep his post of minister of defence in the new cabinet. He has served as defence minister since 1991, under seven different governments.
The ministry of parliamentary affairs will be headed by Mohamed Mahsoub, a high board member of the centrist Muslim Brotherhood splinter group, al-Wasat Party, and a member of the Constituent Assembly, which is charged with drafting Egypt's new constitution. Except the three FJP ministers, Mahsoub is the only minister who has a partisan affiliation in Qandeel's cabinet.
General Ahmed Gamaleddin was appointed new interior minister instead of Mohamed Ibrahim, who stayed in office for eight months. When named prime minister for the first time last week, Qandeel said that a new interior minister would be appointed. Ibrahim himself said he would not stay in office after facing "a difficult time" as interior minister.
Gamaleddin was appointed director of Egypt's Public Security Authority in the place of Adly Fayed, who served under Mubarak and his former interior minister, Habib Al-Adly, who was convicted of manslaughter and is currently serving life imprisonment. Gamaleddin managed to forge close contacts with Muslim Brotherhood MPs over a six-month period, after which the People's Assembly (the lower house of Egypt's parliament) was dissolved.
Cairo Governor Abdel-Qawi Khalifa, meanwhile, was appointed to head up a new portfolio: the ministry of utilities, drinking water and sanitary drainage. Qandeel has said this ministry was created to give an early indication that his government's utmost priority was solving the daily problems of ordinary citizens, who have long complained of inadequate infrastructure.
Osama Saleh, head of the General Authority for Investments will head the ministry of investment, while the ministry of petroleum is to be headed by Osama Kamal, former chairman of the Holding Company for Petrochemicals.
Qandeel's government includes one Coptic-Christian figure, Scientific Research Minister Nadia Zakhary. Mounir Fakhri Abdelnour, the former Coptic tourism minister, opted to leave office after his liberal-oriented Wafd Party declared its refusal to join an Islamist-led government. Hisham Zazaou has been appointed in Abdelnour's place.
Qandeel, who had formerly served as irrigation minister, was replaced by Mohamed Bahaaeddin, who had served as senior undersecretary of the irrigation ministry. Mohammed Rashad, professor of roads and bridges at Cairo University, was appointed transportation minister. Abu Zeid Mohammed Abu Zeid, deputy chairman of Egypt's Holding Company for Food Industries, was appointed minister of supply and internal trade in the place of leftist economist Gouda Abdelkhaleq.