Karzai Still Rules Afghanistan!

After long delay of the result of election, Afghanistan created unity government, which is legitimate according to the constitution, and it was the result of foreign forces that caused both the electoral teams to compromise. It included the 50-50 division of power, which was believed that will end with the cabinet.

President Ashraf Ghani promised in the inauguration ceremony that he will create the new cabinet within 45 days, the promise that is expire dated but not yet fulfilled.

He also promised that his cabinet will have loyal, truthful, and eligible members, and while the creation of the new cabinet delayed and took time, the president’s supporters claimed that it took place to appoint loyal and eligible officials, and the people should not be worried about it, because it is said that so far so good.

 

Is Disagreement the reason for delaying the cabinet?

Both the parties were trying to show that the disagreement is worthless, and even vanish it. But as much the cabinet take time, that much the concern go up that there is a disagreement between both the teams. The ten-member delegation that was appointed by both the teams for appointment of the cabinet members, stopped for the ways of division of power.

The challenge raise from the point, where Dr. Abdullah’s team did not accept the division of power only within the cabinet and provided a detailed list to the team of Dr. Ashraf Ghani. In the list of the governmental offices from ministries, and deputy ministries, to embassies in various countries, were divided either by key position, or none key position.

From that point the problem of definition of the key and non-key position emerged. For example, both the teams believe that the ministry of finance is a key ministry, but according to Dr. Abdullah’s team, some of the departments of the mentioned ministry are also key departments. According to Dr. Abdullah’s team, there are much more key positions in the government compared to the idea of Dr. Ashraf Ghani’s team. And yet both the teams did not agree on the definition of key positions.

It is said that because of the foreign forces, the issue is not shared with media and public are not aware of it.

 

Dispute over Election Commissions:

Another inheritance of President Karzai’s regime to the new unity government is the issue of the election commissions. Dr. Abdullah is asking for reforms in the, so those who were involved in fraud or lack of proper management and caused the crisis in the presidential election should be dismissed from their positions, so it will not cause similar crisis in parliamentarian election. And the law of election should be also revised and changed to prevent such crisis. But up to date, President Ashraf Ghani did not say anything related to this issue. It is in such a condition that there is only six-month time remaining for the legislative branch and after six months there will be election held for the new parliament.

On the other hand, the constitution does not allow any type of changes in the election law during the last year of the working period of the legislative branch, which itself is an obstacle for bringing such changes.

IF the election is held with the leadership of the commissions by the same people, there is no doubt that the parliamentary election would be also full of frauds and the presidential ones. The heads and officials of the current election commissions are also the people of Karzai’s hands and they are loyal to him, and Karzai is also blamed for the frauds and crisis in the presidential election because of the appointment of such officials in those commissions.

 

Wait, but how long?

It was told that the cabinet would be announced prior to the conference of London, but while the date for the conference of London changed, there were rumors that it was changed for delaying the declaration of the cabinet of Afghanistan. Therefore, it was expected that the cabinet would be declared before the conference of London, which was planned on December 4, 2014, but currently it seems impossible; because it is planned that President Ashraf Ghani will participate in two other conferences namely the conference of SAARC and the one of NATO prior to the conference of London. Therefore, it is not possible to declare cabinet prior to the conference of London.

On the other hand, the conference of London is an opportunity for the unity government of Afghanistan to attract international community to continue their aids, but President Ashraf Ghani participate in the conference without even its first step, which is declaration of the cabinet.

There is no doubt that the international community is still concerned about the dispute between the two teams, though both the teams compromised with each other.  The continuation of the ongoing condition may also concern the Afghan Nation. In the condition that the country is going toward financial crisis, and some analysts believe that in the upcoming one month the ministry of finance will not be able to pay the salaries of its officials, the postponement of declaration of the cabinet may cause even more concern and disappointment.

Another demand of the international community from the newly inaugurated Afghan Government is to struggle against corruption, in response to the demand of the international` community, in his first official days reopened the case of Kabul Bank, and it was planned that the result of the case will be declared up to the conference of London, but it also delayed. During the trial of the accused personalities of the Kabul Bank issue, the list of the names was released that some of them were either from Karzai’s family, or his close friends. There is no doubt, if the case is more open, the list of some new people will also appear, which may cause more trouble for the current government.

 

Is Karzai Still in Power?

Currently President Ashraf Ghani is controlling the state with acting ministers and the country with acting governors. The ministers are the same people that were counted as symbols of corruption during President Karzai’s regime, and the Afghan Nation did not have any pleasant memory from those ministers and officials. Therefore; one of the promises of President Ghani, which he gave after the election, was that he will not appoint the officials of the previous regime; but still, after the two months of the new government, there are the ministers of the previous government and every Monday they still participate in the cabinet meeting. The governors’ of Karzai’s era are similarly remaining in their positions.

If the parliamentarian election is held with the leadership and participation of the current officials of the election commission, Karzai will have an open hand in the election, because the officials are appointed by him.

So what has changed? Just President Karzai is replaced by President Ghani, and the structure of the government is still the same as the regime of Karzai, and the officials of that time are still in power. In the other words, President Karzai is still ruling the country, and President Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah are busy with the key and none key positions of the government.

The End