The Hindu : Qanooni aboard new Afghan Cabinet

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 26, 2002

International

International

Qanooni aboard new Afghan Cabinet

Kabul June 25. Afghanistan's new transitional Cabinet has been sworn in at the presidential palace in Kabul with the former Interior Minister, Yunus Qanooni, finally agreeing to rejoin the Government as Education Minister.

Mr. Qanooni had been stalling over the post which was first offered to him last Wednesday on the final day of the loya jirga and said as recently as Monday that he was considering a period out of Government and joining a multi-ethnic political movement.

But an offer by the President, Hamid Karzai, to make him presidential advisor on national security finally won the senior Northern Alliance figure over by alleviating any feeling that he was being sidelined from the centre of power.

Mr. Karzai, however, has still been unable to appoint a minister for women's affairs in succession to Sima Samar.

Ms Samar has been barred from office by the Chief Justice, Mawalawi Fazel Hadi Shinwari, for making a statement ``against the interests of the Afghan Muslim nation'', says state media.

Mr. Karzai revealed that he had offered the post to the former Kabul University law professor, Mahboba Hoqooqmal, but she had yet to accept the job.

The Ministers, many of whom were members of the previous interim administration, repeated the oath of office after it was first read out by Mr. Karzai in the presidential palace. Senior regional leaders including the ethnic Uzbek warlord, Abdul Rashid Dostam, who was not given a Cabinet post and a number of diplomats also attended the ceremony.

Mr. Qanooni's decision to join the Government will be a major relief to Mr. Karzai.

Mr. Qanooni is considered a possible rival to Mr. Karzai at Afghanistan's first general election in 2004 when the transitional Government is due to step down.

Support for Mr. Qanooni was illustrated when staff at the Interior Ministry sealed off roads leading to the building last week in protest at his apparent demotion. They lifted the blockade only when Mr. Karzai told them they must respect their new ministerial boss, Taj Mohammad Wardak.

Mr. Karzai has been attempting to make his new Cabinet more representative of Afghanistan's ethnic mix after the interim administration was dominated mainly by Tajik Northern Alliance which ousted the Taliban last November with the help of the U.S.

The conventional wisdom was that the Foreign Minister, Abdullah Abdullah, would be most vulnerable. But Mr. Abdullah and the Defence Minister, Mohammad Qasim Fahim, both kept their posts, leaving Mr. Qanooni as the major loser.

Mr. Abdullah said after the ceremony that the swearing-in of a new Government was a major stepping stone in the rehabilitation of Afghanistan. — AFP

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

Stories in this Section

Consensus on immigration eludes E.U.

Kashmir militants sore over Pak. stand

Fresh Pak. crackdown on militant outfits

Pak. lifts ban on party rallies

Qanooni aboard new Afghan Cabinet

`Palestinians must elect new leader'

Welcome, say rivals

Wildfire rages on

Blair `upset' with E.U.