MPs renew call for Karzai to complete Cabinet

KABUL members on Saturday once again renewed their call for President Hamid Karzai to introduce his remaining Cabinet ministers to the house for a vote of confidence.

In 2009, Karzai introduced his 24 cabinet picks to the Parliament, but only seven of them were able to get the trust vote, with the house rejecting most of them.

On Jan. 9, 2010, the president sent a new list of 17 ministers designate, but again the house rejected 10 of them, dealing a blow to his authority.

Later in July the same year, five candidates secured the vote of confidence from the lower house of the Parliament in Karzai’s third list of nominees

Ministries, including public health, communication and information technology and water and energy, are currently run by acting ministers.

Speaker Abbul Rauf Ibrahimi told the lower house on Saturday that he had sent a request to the President in written form to send his remaining ministers-designate to the house.

He also said the new list must include names of Supreme Court members appointed by the President for a vote of trust.

However, he said no response had so far been given to his letter by the Presidency, but hoped Karzai would soon resolve the matter.

A number of MPs called on Karzai to send his choices as soon as possible. Lawmaker from central Parwan province, Abdul Sattar Khwazai, said that acting ministers lacked authority to approve schemes. He said the president should replace the acting ministers in order to resolve pending matters.

Another lawmaker from eastern Nangarhar province, Aryan Yun, said the president was afraid that the house would not give his choices a trust vote. He also called for unseating parliamentarians who made it to the legislature through fraud in last year’s parliamentary election.

ma

Views: 2