Sources from the Presidential Palace say President Karzai has finalized nominations for cabinet members to get vote of confidence from the lower house of parliament soon. But once again they are going to be the same faces, those acting ministers who have been rejected by the previous parliament thrice. Some new faces might replace, but mostly they will be the same acting-ministers. It seems the Karzai Administration is going through a drought of capable people to lead the ministries.
It has been almost two years that six ministries are being run by acting-ministers who were rejected by parliament for several rounds of nominations. Last year after introducing his cabinet, President Karzai had tough times getting his ministerial nominees approved from parliament. It took three slots of nominations, but the same people coming again and again were rejected consecutively by the lower house.
The President did not give a damn to the will of parliament and appointed those same rejected candidates as acting ministers to run the cabinet positions. Currently ministries of water and power, public health, urban development, communications and information technology and higher education are headed by acting ministers.
According to law, an acting minister cannot run office for more than a month, and a nominee rejected from parliament cannot serve as acting. Acting ministers are appointed at a time of emergency or crisis when there is no parliament or other administrative hurdles in the system. But we had not such circumstances. There was a battle in the parliament over this issue.
It has been a clear violation of constitution by the very Presidential Palace, which blames foreigners for interference in our constitutional implementation, and accuses the opposition figures of violating it when they criticize poor governance and rampant corruption. It's unbelievable how the rulers have made a mess of the system with no regard for constitution and rule of law.
The current parliament since its inception has asked the Government several times to introduce cabinet members. But President Karzai kept ignoring their calls. It has been disappointing that members of the Committee for Oversight and Implementation of the Constitution have also kept a blind eye to this mockery of the system and rule of law by Presidential Palace.
The Lower House is on winter break now. MPs will start working from February 21, and it seems their first agenda will be vote of confidence for the remaining cabinet members.
Last year when the parliamentary elections were held, there was a long stalemate between the government and parliament. President Karzai forced the Election Commission to dismiss election results because the opposition forces had majority in the lower house and they could create serious administrative troubles for President Karzai, episodes of which we saw in rejection of his cabinet members repetitively.
During the parliamentary crisis, when President Karzai ordered establishment of that pity elections Special Court for allegations of fraud in elections, the acting-ministers faced no question of legitimacy on their unconstitutional service as the Palace had hijacked the inauguration of parliament with the crisis.
Now that an example of clear violation of the constitution has been made by President Karzai, and nobody can dare to challenge it, nor the Committee for Oversight and Implementation of the Constitution bothers, we hope the new nomination will not get in such a stalemate as previous rounds.
The current Chief Justice of Supreme Court and some judges are also acting-judges. Their tenure has been completed and they are serving against the constitutional provisions. President Karzai should also appoint new Chief Justice as soon as possible. Enough is enough with mockery of law and the system!