ISLAMABAD, March 31: Most of the members of the federal cabinet sworn in on Monday are new faces in that they have become ministers for the first time.

Included among them are PPP’s Sherry Rahman, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Farooq H. Naek, Qamar-uz-Zaman Kaira, Humayun Aziz Kurd, Nazar Mohammad Gondal and Najamuddin Khan, PML-N’s Khwaja Saad Rafique, ANP’s Khwaja Mohammad Hoti, JUI-F’s Rehmatullah Kakar and Fata’s independent MNA Hameedullah Jan Afridi.

Among the PPP members, Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Khurshid Ahmed Shah, Syed Naveed Qamar and Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar have previously been in the federal cabinet.

Most of the ministers took charge in the afternoon and they were briefed by officials on the gigantic task they face in implementing the prime minister’s 100-day programme. The swearing-in of the cabinet is seen here as the beginning of the countdown for meeting the main objective of the Murree Declaration, under which the coalition government is committed to reinstating the deposed judges within 30 days of the formation of the government.

Adviser on Interior and Narcotics Control Rehman Malik had said after taking the charge of his ministry that the countdown would begin after the new cabinet had been sworn in.

President Pervez Musharraf has the distinction of having sworn in five cabinets, four of former prime ministers Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Shaukat Aziz and caretaker prime minister Mohammedmian Soomro, and now of Yusuf Raza Gilani.

The cabinet is expected to be expanded in two phases and is likely to comprise more than 60 ministers. Fourteen members of the cabinet are from Punjab, four each from Sindh and the NWFP, two from Balochistan and one from Fata.

Three Senators are included in the cabinet — Farooq Naek of the PPP, Ishaq Dar of the PML-N and Rahmatullah Kakar of the JUI-F.

According to an agreement among coalition partners, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman is likely to be made chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir.