President Pervez Musharraf has administered oath of office to a 24-member coalition Cabinet. While most of the important portfolios went to the main coalition partner Pakistan People's Party (PPP), its ally PML-N members sported black arms bands in a symbolic protest against the former General.

The brief swearing-in ceremony was organized at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, where Musharraf administered the oath to 11 ministers from the PPP, nine from the PML-N, two from the Awami National Party and one each from the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and a grouping of lawmakers from the tribal areas.

Ministers belonging to the PML-N have described Musharraf as an "illegal and unconstitutional" President and had also boycotted the swearing in of the new Prime Minister and wore black arms bands in a sign of protest.

PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted by Musharraf in a 1999 bloodless coup, had said his party had decided to "swallow a bitter pill" by allowing its ministers to be sworn in by Musharraf in the interest of the coalition government.

Cambridge educated PPP leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi will be the new Pakistan foreign minister, while Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar will look after the defense portfolio. Earlier, both Qureshi and Mukhtar had been in the race for the prime ministerial slot.