Morsi's new cabinet potpourri of Egypt's rival political forces

Cairo, August 3 (ANI): Egypt's newly elected President Mohammed Morsi has announced a 35-member cabinet that includes representatives of the country's rival political forces.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the new cabinet includes top general Hussein Tantawi, which has launched a new round of scrutiny of how the Islamist president is steering the country.

Morsi and Prime Minister Hisham Qandil had pledged to put together a government uniting Egypt's divided political forces, which is not an easy task in the country's fractured political life, the report said.

"We are all Egyptians," Qandil said, adding: "This is the people's government; it doesn't belong to any political trend."

The first permanent government since the overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 includes members of the military, Islamists and liberals.

Only five ministers in the new government, including housing and education, have been chosen from the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party.

Qandil, a little-known minister of irrigation in the military-appointed government, has already drawn criticism by liberals and secularists who allege he is linked to Islamist political parties.

Qandil, a former senior manager at the African Development Bank , is an openly devout Muslim, but says he has never been a member of any religious party or movement.

The cabinet includes just two women, one of whom is Christian, continuing the Mubarak-era tradition of giving Egypt's women and minorities little more than a token presence at the top levels of government. (ANI)