www.timesonline.co.uk
President Karzai is expected to name a new Cabinet today after weeks of pressure from Western capitals linking future support to reform of the Afghan Government.
Mr Karzai has been pondering the new line-up of his Government since he was declared the winner of the widely discredited presidential elections in August. In his inauguration speech last month he promised to end the country’s “culture of impunity”.
Afghan government sources and Western diplomats have both told The Times that the new Cabinet is expected to retain those ministers regarded as competent and non-corrupt by the West. However, Afghan government sources said that changes to the final line-up were still being formulated last night ahead of this morning’s expected announcement.
“There is a lot uncertainty, a lot of deal making,” said one senior Afghan official, who declined to be identified. “There will certainly be a lot of technocrats in the final list, there will also be some middlemen for warlords. It will not be a perfect cabinet but it will be acceptable to Brussels.”
One senior Western diplomat told The Times that the final list was expected to be “fairly responsible” and to retain the handful of ministers who had won Western backing for competence and relative incorruptibility in the last administration.
Among those expected to appear in the final list are the respected current Finance Minister Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal, former Interior Minister Ali Jalali and Agriculture Minister Asif Rahimi.
Another name widely tipped is Gul Agha Sherzai, the energetic governor of Nangahar province who is known as “The Bulldozer”. His warlord past has not prevented him winning popularity with US officials.
Traditionally all Afghan Cabinets are a balancing act of the country’s competing ethnicities and interest groups.
Mr Karzai caused deep gloom in the international community before the elections when he named two prominent warlords, Karim Khalili and Marshal Mohammad Fahim, as his running mates. Both are accused of war crimes by human rights groups. He was also widely reported to have made a number of deals with different ethnic warlords, in exchange for promised votes.
The most notorious figures, such as General Rashid Dostum and Mohammad Mohaqeq, do not appear to be in the running for a Cabinet post. However, Mr Karzai is known to have met the Northern Alliance warlord Doctor Burhanuddin Rabbani in the past week and there are persistent claims that he has demanded a Cabinet position for his son.
The Afghan parliament yesterday demanded that it be allowed to exercise its Constitutional right under to refuse any member of the cabinet. In the past some ministers were able to take up their posts even though they were barred by parliamentary vote.
In the first sign of a discernible crackdown on corruption the Mayor of Kabul, Mir Abdul Ahad Sahebi, was sentenced to four years of imprisonment on charges relating to the misappropriation of £9,800 of public money. The sum is small change compared to the millions suspected to have been embezzled by government officials.
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