With 11 ministers, including six from JUI-F and five from the Jamaat-e-Islami, administered the oath of office as members of the MMA government in the NWFP here on Monday, Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani's cabinet now has 12 ministers, without representation from the smaller parties led by heavy weights Maulana Samiul Haq and Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani.

Senior minister Sirajul Haq, affiliated to the Jamaat-e-Islami , took oath along with the chief minister on November 30.

NWFP Governor, Lt Gen (retd) Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah administered the oath to the 11 ministers at the imposing Darbar Hall of the governor's house.

A large number of MNAs, MPAs, senior government officials and MMA activists attended the ceremony. Elected representatives of other political parties were also among the invitees.

The six JUI-F ministers are Malik Zafar Azam from Karak district, Peshawar's Asif Iqbal, Mardan's Hafiz Akhtar Ali, Swabi's Maulana Fazle Ali, Swat's Qari Mahmud and Abbottabad's Sardar Mohammed Idrees.

The five Jamaat-e-Islami MPAs who became ministers on Monday include Hafiz Hashmat Khan from Peshawar, Mardan's Fazal Rabbani, Swat's Hussain Ahmed, Dir's Inayatullah and Haripur's Raja Faisal Zaman.

The portfolios were allotted to the JUI-F ministers. Zafar Azam was given charge of industries, mineral development and technical education, Asif Iqbal became minister of excise and taxation, Hafiz Akhtar Ali was allocated irrigation and power and Haj, Auqaf, religious and minority affairs.

Maulana Fazle Ali was given higher education, schools and literacy, Qari Mahmud was allotted agriculture and livestock and Sardar Idrees was made minister of local government and rural development.

The chief minister keeps the portfolios of revenue, administration, establishment, home and tribal affairs, information and works and services with him.

Officially, the portfolios allocated to the six Jamaat-e-Islami ministers were not communicated to the press, but the party's provincial chief Professor Mohammed Ibrahim said that the list had been finalised.

According to him, senior minister Sirajul Haq would manage finance, planning, development and environment, Inayatullah would be minister of health and population planning, Fazal Rabbani would look after agriculture and food and Hashmat Khan would run the Ushar, Zakat, social welfare and women development departments.

He said Hussain Ahmed was made minister of science and technology and Raja Faisal Zaman of sports, culture, tourism, youth affairs and archaeology.

When reminded that JUI-F's Qari Mahmud had also been allocated the agriculture portfolio, Prof. Ibrahim said it was agreed earlier that it would go to a Jamaat-e-Islami minister and consultations were continuing between the two parties to sort out the matter.

Only Zafar Azam has served as a minister in the past. The other 10 ministers are largely unknown and are first time members of the Provincial Assembly.

Raja Faisal Zaman, who was elected as an independent and joined the Jamaat-e-Islami recently, is the only one who belongs to a known political family.

His father, Raja Sikandar Zaman, served as federal minister and caretaker chief minister of the NWFP. Incidentally, Faisal Zaman and Zafar Azam are the only clean-shaven ministers.

Of the JUI-F ministers, at least three isncluding Hafiz Akhtar Ali, Maulana Fazle Ali and Qari Mahmud are the product of madrassas and are acknowledged as religious scholars. They also run schools in their districts.

Two JUI-F ministers are new entrants to the party. Asif Iqbal joined the JUI-F before the October 10 general elections along with members of his family that was associated since long to the ANP.

Sardar Idrees, a close relation of former provincial minister Sardar Ghulam Nabi, won election as an independent from Abbottabad's Galiyat area.

Smaller MMA component parties such as Maulana Samiul Haq's JUI which has two MPAs, Maulana Noorani's JUP with one MPA and Professor Sajid Mir's Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith with one MPA were not accommodated in the first batch of the cabinet.