Some members of Egypt's parliament were informed on Monday of the names of the ministerial candidates submitted to parliament by the cabinet ahead of a vote on the list in a plenary session on Tuesday. Hussein Eissa, the head of parliament's budget committee, told reporters on Monday that parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Aal had officially received a list of the new cabinet ministers, with their curriculum vitae attached. Eissa said MPs will be required to approve or reject the list as a whole, not on a case by case basis, in line with Article 147 of the constitution. “While Prime Minister Sherif Ismail will not attend parliament's session [on Tuesday], parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Aal will be required to officially inform President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi whether the new cabinet reshuffle has been approved by MPs,” said Eissa. Meanwhile, Ali El-Moselhi, the head of parliament's economic affairs committee and a Mubarak-era minister of social solidarity, told reporters that he was approached by PM Sherif Ismail to become a minister. Some parliamentary sources said El-Moselhi would take charge of the investment portfolio in place of the current minister Dahlia Khorshid. Sources also said that Hesham El-Sherif, a former head of the cabinet's Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC), will be appointed minister of local development in place of Ahmed Zaki Badr; economist Lubna Hilal will become minister of planning in place of Ashraf El-Arabi; and Muawad El-Khouli will be appointed minister of higher education. Sources also said that judge Ayman Abbas will be appointed as minister of legal affairs and representative councils in place of Magdi El-Agati, and agronomist Abdel-Moneim El-Banna will become minister of agriculture in place of Essam Fayed. Sources also said the cabinet reshuffle might see the departure of Minister of Education El-Hilali El-Sherbini and Minister of Religious Endowments Mohamed Mokhtar Gomma. They added that four cabinet ministers – Minister of Defence Sedki Sobhi, Minister of Interior Magdi Abdel-Ghaffar, Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukri, and Minister of Justice Hossam Abdel-Reheim – will keep their posts. The sources also said that Minister of Finance Amr El-Garhi will also stay in office.
