|
|
|
|
|
|
Afghanistan Cabinet Selection Challenging to Karzai
 |
|
Karzai |
By Asif Farooqi, IOL Correspondent
KABUL, June 14 (IslamOnline) - Elected President of Afghanistan with an overwhelming majority, Hamid Karzai began selecting his cabinet Friday June 14.
The Loya Jirga (grand assembly) took up the sensitive question of the system of the future government in Afghanistan and its component.
This is where the Loya Jirga and the president-elect face the biggest challenge. There are tribal chiefs and warlords who never like to be out of the realpolitik of
Afghanistan, despite the commoners in this country hold them responsible for 13 years of civil war. On the other hand, there is the delicate balance of the ethnic divide for which Hamid Karzai has to be extra careful.
“It is very difficult, if not impossible, to maintain that balance while choosing the people for the government posts and at the same time keep everyone happy” said Ahmed Mashhadi, a former professor at the Kabul University while talking to the IslamOnline. He said nomination to the cabinet post was not only the biggest challenge for Karzai but the Loya Jirga would have to be ultra careful while discussing the future form of the government.
The consultation process began as Karzai invited to a luncheon meeting, some of the key players in the Afghan politics to his Palace Friday. Those invited at the Presidential Palace include Kandahar Governor Gul Agha, Nangahar Governor Haji Qadir, Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and some other prominent figures. Karzai was to have another meeting of the same kind later in the evening with
some of his friends representing other communities including the Hazar and Uzbeks.
Figures such as former President Burhanuddin Rabbani, the Wahabbi leader Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and Ismail Khan the warlord of western Afghanistan who command between 50-100 elected delegates are likely to press Karzai to nominate one of their own as minister on top of the important slots.
Karzai has to correct the tilt of the interim administration whose main ministries have been dominated by Tajik members of the Northern Alliance. The sources say, one proposal inline with this objective is to have a new face acceptable to other minority groups as the foreign minister. The dominance of the Northern Alliance will be fading away but still the all powerful Defense Ministry is likely
to stay with this groups as it owns most of the security personnel in control of all the major security posts.
As the Loya Jirga continued with the discussion on the form of the government, Karzai announced that Afghanistan would have a Presidential form of the government. The President will be assited by a cabinet. An independatn judiciary and the parliament will come into being within this span of the transitional government.
How hard the discussions at the Loya Jirga on the future of the country would be, one can gauge by Friday’s proceeding when Hamid Karzai came under presuure, soon after being nominated, to declare Shariah as the law of the land. “I have a proposal for the presdident-elect not to go beyond the circle of God and his prophet in all his activities," Abdul Rab Rasul Sayaf an influential Afghan commander said while speaking in the Jirga in the presence of the elected leader. He proposed that the Shariah be made the law of the land and the two-year authority be named as the Islamic Transitional Administration of Afghanistan. Delegates also got up from their seats, stood on chairs, clapped, cheered and shouted "Allah-u-Akbar" ("God is great").
Jalal, 35, who works for the World Food Program said she was standing for head of state at the Loya Jirga. Ends…
|
|
|
|
|
|
