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New Afghan Cabinet Gets Down to Business
KABUL, Dec. 23 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The new Afghan cabinet led by Hamid Karzai on Sunday held its first meeting to discuss the mammoth task of reconstructing the stricken nation, news agencies reported.
All 29 of Karzai's ministers - including two women - were present at the meeting in the Gul Khana presidential palace of the power-sharing government, which has been welcomed by the world, but faces a huge job during its six-month tenure, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Karzai has said the 29-member cabinet faces political oblivion unless it can succeed in bringing peace and stability to the country, and appealed for billions of dollars in international aid, according to BBC's online news service.
After being sworn-in Saturday, Karzai said billions of dollars were needed to begin the task, and he called on the international community to come to the aid of Afghanistan.
"The number one priority is to maintain and further provide peace and stability for Afghanistan, to give the Afghan people an opportunity to live at absolute ease," said Karzai. "The revival of certain industries, the revival of agriculture, schools and hospitals... there is really no area in which Afghanistan does not require assistance.
A British embassy spokesman, meanwhile, said Sunday that the bulk of the international security force for Kabul was not expected until next month. About 100 British Royal Marines are already in the capital.
Karzai faces an immediate controversy over the U.S. bombing of a convoy in eastern Afghanistan, in which 65 Afghan civilians were killed. A tribal chief reportedly threatened to start a war against the new government if there were more U.S. attacks in his region.
However, Afghan presidential official Aziz Karzai said the first meeting concentrated on "basic subjects of the government," AFP reported.
After taking the oath of office at a solemn ceremony on Saturday, Karzai said the administration's priorities were to establish "peace and stability" and to begin the reconstruction of the nation.
Residents of Kabul, meanwhile, returned to work in thousands Sunday after a week of virtual inactivity linked to Eid al-Fitr holidays (marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan) and the celebration of Saturday's inauguration.
Hundreds of people staged a pro-government march through the streets of the city, welcoming Karzai's new administration and calling for jobs.
"There are four reasons we are marching," said one of the organizers, Khalil Delawer. "The first is to welcome the new government, the second is to celebrate the end of fighting, the third is that armed fighters have been called off the streets, and the fourth is to ask Hamid Karzai to give jobs back to professionals."
Many tribal chiefs, leaders and even ministers in the new government shed tears as they watched Karzai and outgoing president Burhanuddin Rabbani embrace in a gesture which symbolized Afghanistan's first peaceful transfer of power since the overthrow of King Mohammad Zaher Shah in 1973.
Of the 30 posts of the Afghan interim cabinet, 18 (including senior posts of defense, interior and foreign affairs) are held by the Northern Alliance, 11 are held by the Rome group (of ex-king Mohammed Zahir Shah), and one by the Peshawar group.
Eleven officials are ethnic Pashtun, eight are ethnic Tajiks, five are ethnic Hazaras and three are ethnic Uzbeks. The remaining three come from smaller ethnic groups.
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