Karzai excludes main rivals from new Cabinet

12/23/2004 2:00:00 PM GMT

Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai excluded leaders of influential regional factions from the new Cabinet that he selected on Thursday.

Government officials said that Karzai created a new post responsible for the fight against opium production.

Karzai has recently vowed to fight opium trade, which poses a greater threat to the country’s future than Taliban or Al Qaeda.

In October, Karzai won Afghanistan’s historic presidential elections. Analysts consider his new cabinet as the real test for his ability to introduce a new era of stability.

Sources said that the Defense Minister, Mohammad Qassim Fahim, wasn’t included in Karzai’s new Cabinet.

Fahim was replaced by Rahim Wardak, an ethnic Pashtun and a former army general who was trained in the United States. He was also a deputy defense minister in the interim government.

The President also excluded his main rival, Yunus Qanuni, shocking the Afghans as they thought Qanuni would hold a significant position.

Fahim, a leader in the Northern Alliance that helped in tracking down Taliban fighters, clashed with Karzai before the presidential elections.

He and Qanuni are both ethnic Tajiks and leaders of the Panjsheri party formerly led by the assassinated resistance leader Ahmad Shah Masood.

According to the new constitution written early this year, cabinet members must have high education degrees. Karzai also ruled that any person who holds another nationality must give up the citizenship of the second country to join the cabinet.

The most influential ministers in Afghanistan are Defense and Interior, as they are responsible for security forces.

Sources said that Karzai will keep Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali if he renounces his U.S. citizenship.

Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, another leader of the Panjsheri faction, stayed in his position as foreign minister.

But Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, a former official in the World Bank who holds the American passport, has been replaced by the current central bank Governor Anwarul-Haq Ahadi.

Sources also said that resistance fighter, Ismail Khan, who led an army force in Herat months before the Soviet invasion 25 years ago, has been given the ministry in charge of energy, water and power. Khan was dismissed by Karzai as the governor of Herat earlier this year.

The water and energy ministry isn’t regarded as an important position, but Khan’s choice is likely to fuel criticism from human rights groups, who have demanded Karzai to exclude influential figures from his cabinet and select a multi-ethnic society.

The National Assembly must approve Karzai’s cabinet list as soon as it convenes after the parliamentary elections which is planned for April but might be postponed.