Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

The Ball is in WJ Court

The long-awaited and desperately needed cabinet has been announced by the Unity Government which is a pleasing indication for all the masses of the country. As has been repeatedly pointed out in these lines, the functioning of the unity government is no less than a miracle and the disagreement between the two stakeholders on the finalization of the names of nominees for the cabinet was quite natural and expected. The unity government got its birth from the circumstances and its existence is like a business partnership in which so many business points or factors have not been included and many more are unforeseen so there would definitely be such disagreements between the two parties. It is also a strange reality that a cabinet comprising of ministers from two different parties would be working together. However, the announcement of cabinet has brought an end to the political stalemate which was observed after the second round of presidential elections last year.

Yesterday, the cabinet was introduced to the lower house of the parliament or ‘Wolesi Jirga’ (WJ) from where they have to win the vote of confidence after which they will be introduced into the upper house of parliament. In this regard, an important responsibility lies on the shoulders of the house. It must be kept in mind that the house is in its last year of functioning and many accusations have been brought forward against a number of members of the house during their tenure in the office. They have been accused of accepting bribe, or considering political, ethnic or other discriminations while giving their vote or opinion for an issue. It is an important occasion that this house should prove all these accusations wrong by thoroughly checking the nominees of cabinet and performing their duties honestly and dutifully in this regard. If the house failed to perform its duties properly and inefficient and corrupt ministers were approved by the house, it would be a great treason against the trust of people with whose votes they reached to the house and got the unique opportunity to make legislation for broader interests of country. In the same way, the two heads of state should not allow the nominated ministers to get into direct connection with parliamentarians to persuade them illegally or unethically for their approval from the floor of the house.

Another important factor in this regard is the thorough checking of the nominated ministers. If these nominated ministers are not properly checked by the house, they may create so many problems for the country and people in future and would add to the miseries of this war-torn nation. There are so many negative reports against the nominated minsters in the media and social networking sites. A minister is said to be wanted by Interpol for corruption in a European country. Another minister is said to be younger than the age required for being a minister. Eleven ministers of the nominated cabinet have also been reported to be having dual nationalities. In the same way, the educational documents of a number of ministers are seen with suspicion.

The said minister to be wanted by Interpol announced on Tuesday that it is due to the result of misinformation and part of the tactics of the corrupt officials of the said country. He announced to wait until he is cleared of the accusations. In the same way, the constitution requires that a candidate for a ministry should be of certain age below which he will not be able to become a minister. One of the ministers is reported to be below the required age and he has recently made some alterations in his age in his national identity card or tazkirah.

In the same way, the constitution requires that no minister should have dual nationality and no person with dual nationality is eligible to become a minister. There are reports that eleven members of the nominated cabinet have dual nationalities. Members of government with dual nationalities created so many problems in the past terms of ex-president Hamid Karzai as well. These ministers fled outside the country after the allegations of corruption and till today, government has failed to bring them back as they carry a passport of an influential country and their countries also back them for their own objectives. They have spent majority of their lives outside Afghanistan and it is very difficult for them to realize the actual conditions of people living in the country. Some of them never experienced the hardships faced by this nation in all the years followed after Russian invasion of 1979. As mentioned earlier, the concerned committees of the lower house of parliament should work to find out the reality behind these allegations and no parliamentarian should give vote to a nominee who has dual nationality.

However, the educated and intellectual class of the country is also delighted with a fact that a number of ministers have been introduced to the house who are highly educated and have a very clean record of social service or personal honesty. It is the reason why, a number of tribal chiefs, jihadi leaders and elders of ethnic groups are not happy of these nominations as they always demanded share in government on the basis of their position and not any quality.

Keeping in mind the above factors, we are hopeful that we will be able to see a cabinet that would best serve the interests of the country and people.