Afghanistan's new Cabinet was being sworn in Friday, sealing the ouster of some high-profile warlords from the government, and President Hamid Karzai's spokesman said it reflected the leader's will to have educated people running the country.
Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim, a major Tajik strongman and the head of the northern alliance that helped the US oust the Taliban in 2001, was sacked in the Cabinet shuffle and replaced by his deputy, Abdul Rahim Wardak, as part of a crackdown on warlords in the government.
Southern warlord Gul Agha Sherzai was removed as public works minister.
Also dropped from the Cabinet was Sayed Hussain Anwari, who controlled a private army in the north and had been agriculture minister.
The new ministers -- 27 in all -- were to be sworn in during a ceremony at the presidential palace. They reflect Karzai's first major policy decision since his inauguration this month as Afghanistan's first democratically elected president.
Karzai has pledged to bring more professionalism to his government, and has embraced a constitutional decree that all ministers be college-educated and that they give up citizenship in any other country.
"This is a comprehensive step that takes Afghanistan to a new era in which people come to the Cabinet because they are capable of serving the Afghan people and because they are educated," said Jawed Ludin, Karzai's spokesman. "What matters in the next five years is that the people should see some change in their lives."
The Cabinet selections are seen as crucial to how this war-ravaged nation will deal with problems such a destroyed infrastructure, a stubborn Taliban and al-Qaida insurgency and a booming opium trade that accounts for three-quarters of the world's market.
Karzai named a relative unknown, Habibullah Qaderi, to head the new Counternarcotics Ministry to crack down on a multibillion-dollar drug trade that is flooding the world with cheap heroin.
Karzai wants a "holy war" against the drug trade, calling it a greater threat to the nation's future than the Taliban or al-Qaida.
The new Cabinet was announced late Thursday on state-run television.
Central Bank Governor Anwar ul-Haq Ahadi, a longtime Karzai ally, replaced Ashraf Ghani as finance minister.
Foreign Minister Abdullah and Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali, both popular in the West, were kept on. Like many Afghans, Abdullah uses only one name.
Masooda Jalal, the only women to run in the October elections and an outspoken critic of Karzai's reliance on warlords, was named minister of women's affairs.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia