ISLAMABAD, Jan 25: The Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM) is set to join the PPP-led coalition at the Centre and some ministers are likely to be inducted in cabinet expansion on Monday, sources in the MQM and President House told Dawn on Sunday.

Some changes in ministries and portfolios are also expected. The swearing-in ceremony will be held at the President’s House, to be followed by a meeting of the PPP parliamentary committee to discuss issues like forthcoming Senate elections, 17th Amendment and lawyers’ programme for a long march.

President’s spokesman t Farhatullah Babar said the cabinet would be expanded but he did not give details, like the number of new ministers and their expected portfolios.

Sources in the MQM said the chief of their party, Altaf Hussain, had endorsed the decision to quit opposition and join the ruling coalition with the induction of three MQM ministers.

More ministers from the JUI-F and PPP are also likely to be inducted to fill cabinet posts lying vacant for almost a year.

The sources said Dr Farooq Sattar, Babar Ghori, Ahmed Ali and Khushbakht Shujaat were among the probable MQM nominees for cabinet portfolios.

At present, there are 62 cabinet members and the expansion will increase the cabinet strength to 72.

It is learnt that the MQM and the PPP decided to join hands at the centre in recent meetings between an MQM delegation and President Zardari and between MQM chief Altaf Hussain and Prime Minister’s Adviser on Interior Rehman Malik in London. The two parties are partners in the Sindh government.

The source said that the MQM had been demanding four federal ministries – the the ones they previously had and the petroleum ministry.

Both parties are said to have reached an understanding on the Senate elections.

However, sources in the PPP said there was resentment in sections of the PPP over the induction of MQM ministers.

The sources said the political alliance was cemented after the PPP accepted MQM’s major demands, adding that even the portfolios had been finalised and the MQM was likely get three or four federal ministries, including ports and shipping, communications, housing and works and petroleum.

The sources said MQM’s induction in the government would solve PPP’s problems of living with a simple and ‘fragile’ majority in parliament and after this alliance no opposition party would be in a position force any decision.

Sources in the PPP said the party’s parliamentary committee would also meet in the presidency, which would be addressed by the President Zardari. In the last meting presided over by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, some PPP leaders had opposed the high command’s decision to induct some ‘unknown’ people as ‘advisers’ in the federal cabinet.

Azfarul Ashfaque adds from Karachi: The MQM has decided to join the PPP-led coalition government at the Centre and three of its parliamentarians will be sworn in on Monday.

According to a statement issued from the party’s London secretariat on Sunday, the MQM’s coordination committee held a special session, simultaneously in Karachi and London, and decided to accept the PPP’s offer to join the federal cabinet. The party chief, Altaf Hussain, had endorsed the decision, the statement said.

Sources said that the PPP had made an offer to the MQM in October to join the coalition at the Centre. But it was rejected by the latter because they had been offered only two portfolios. They said the MQM believed that it had not been given its due share.

The sources said the two parties had decided at the “highest level” that the number of MQM’s ministries would be increased.