(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Egypt’s Prime Minister Essam Sharaf has reshuffled 14 posts in his interim Cabinet. According to many revolutionaries, however, the move has failed to satisfy their concerns about the handling of the present phase.
Sharaf has appointed Hazem Beblawi, a 74-year-old adviser at the Abu Dhabi-based Arab Monetary Fund, as minister of finance after Samir Radwan resigned. Beblawi has also been appointed a vice prime minister,
Moreover, Ali El-Salmi is the other vice prime minister, albeit for political affairs. The 75-year-old is also the new minister of public sector affairs. A former minister of administrative development and minister of monitoring in the late 70s, he has also written several books on management.
Ambassador Mohamed Kamel Amr, Egypt’s former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, is the new foreign minister after Mohamed El-Orabi resigned. El-Orabi had held the post for less than a month.
Lotfi Kamal, a former chief-of-staff of the Air Force, is minister of civil aviation.
Mohamed Abdel Fadil El-Qossi was appointed as the minister of religious endowments. El-Qossi is vice president of the World’s Association of Al-Azhar Graduates.
Judge Mohamed Atia is the new minister of local development. Atia is a former first deputy chairman of the Council of the State.
Moataz Khorshid takes over as minister of higher education and scientific research. Khorshid is currently chairman of the Egyptian Software Engineers Association and has held the posts of vice president of the British University in Cairo, vice president of Graduate Studies and Reseach in Cairo University, and dean of the Faculty of Computer Science in addition to being advisor to the French University in Cairo (FUC).
Ibrahim Sabry has been appointed as the minister of military production, replacing Said Meshaal.
Amr Helmy heads up the Ministry of Health. A former dean of the National Institute of Liver at the University of Menoufiya the 62-year-old started his first day as a minister by visiting Tahrir Square this morning.
Ali Zien El-Abdeen is the new minister of transportation. An engineer, the 57-year-old was the director of Cairo Project Festival of Al-Futtaim Company and has published several studies in the field of roads.
Salah Farag was appointed as minister of agriculture. Farag served as the head of the agricultural services.
Hazem Abdel Latif was appointed as minister of telecommunication, Abdel Latif, who is friends with Wael Ghoneim, is known for mobilising protesters ahead of and at the outbreak of the revolution. The 51-year-old uses Facebook for political activism and was a consultant to the telecommunication minister in the field of technological developments in 2007.
Ahmed Fekri Abdel Wahab has been appointed as the trade and industry minister. Fekri is currently the president of the Export Council for Engineering Industries, a member of the director of the protection of competition and monopolistic practices and he owns an automotive company.
Hashim Kandil is the new minister of irrigation and water resources. Kandil was the head of the Nile Department in the same ministry. Recently he was working on the Nile file with Sudan.
For the Ministry of Antiquities, currently there are four names being studied by the Cabinet, though the announcement yesterday that Abdel Fattah El-Banna would replace Zahi Hawass has been criticised vehemently by the majority of revolutionaries.
Meanwhile, the ministerial reshuffle has not taken in the minister of justice, interior, electricity, international cooperation, education, petrolium, culture, environment, tourism, manpower (labour) and social solidarity. Protesters who have been staging a sit-in in Tahrir Square since 8 July are not satisfied with the reshuffle as it does not go far enough by leaving in place both them minister of interior and the minister of justice whose ministeries have come under heavy fire for their failure to reform since the revolution or give any semblance of doing so.
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