President Mamnoon Hussain on Friday swore in a 43-member federal cabinet as the ruling party’s top leadership – retaining most of the old faces – made some unexpected reshuffle at the crucial slots while appointing fulltime foreign and defence ministers.After two days of back to back meetings in Murree with deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif, the PM finalised names for the new cabinet – comprising 27 federal ministers and 16 ministers of state – which took their oath of office at the presidency in two groups.Cabinet of prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who was deposed by the apex court on July 28 for hiding his asset in his nomination papers, also had 43 members including twenty federal ministers, nine ministers of state, five advisers and nine special assistants toofficials attended the event. The president later hosted a reception in honour of the new cabinet members.The most significant aspect of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s cabinet is appointment of Khawaja Asif and Khurram Dastagir respectively as ‘full time’ foreign minister and defence minister. Asif and Dastagir served as water and power and commerce ministers in former PM Sharif’s cabinet.As Chaudhry Nisar had refused to join the cabinet, the important position of Interior Minister has been given to former planning minister Ahsan Iqbal. Ishaq Dar has been reassigned Finance Ministry.Lt Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch, who was minister of states and frontier regions (Safron) in Nawaz’s cabinet, has been reassigned portfolio of the same ministry. Baloch was earlier considered favourite for the slots of defence and interior minister.Saira