Ten new ministers are to be sworn in on Tuesday as part of a partial reshuffle in Sherif Ismail’s Cabinet, days before parliament is scheduled to decide on the government’s platform, according to a high-profile government source.
Consultations are to continue through Monday to decide the new ministers of investment, health, irrigation, justice, finance, tourism, antiquities, education, environment and transport.
The government is also mulling the revival of the Information Ministry, which was cancelled following the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood government in 2013, according to the source. The official added that a merger of the finance and planning ministries is also on the table, and that the Administrative Development Ministry will also come back into being.
Ismail, a former petroleum minister in the Cabinet of Ibrahim Mehleb, took over as prime minister in September following a reshuffle against the backdrop of a corruption scandal involving Mehleb’s agriculture minister Salah Helal.
The government is expected on March 27 to brief parliament on its action plan for the coming period. If parliament rejects the government's plan, it will be entitled to nominate a new government head to form a new cabinet.
In a survey released on Monday, the Egyptian Center for Public Opinion Research (Baseera) said approval rates for Ismail's performance stand at 17 percent among Egyptians, with 23 percent rating his performance at "average", 12 percent seeing his performance as "bad" and 50 percent undecided.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
