Former Ambassador to Pakistan Omar Daudzai has taken charge of the Interior Ministry, promising he would keep the Ministry out of meddling into electoral affairs. He said addressing major security issues would be his top priority.

In an unusual inauguration, Senior Minister Hidayet Amin Arsala introduced Daudzai at a special ceremony held at the Ministry on Monday. The ceremony was attended by a number of MPs. With emphasis about neutrality during elections he said, "All police personnel are urged to maintain neutrality during the election and avoid commenting in favor of any particular candidate. The police should not participate in the election campaigns; they must be neutral and focus on security during elections."

A longtime confidante of President Karzai and the mastermind of efforts to reach out to Taliban, Daudzai has Hizb Islami background and some thinkers believe that his appointment as Interior Minister is an important move aimed at maneuvering the electoral process. A principle stand for President Karzai would have been removal of former Minister Mujtaba Patang as soon as the parliament impeached him with vote of no confidence. But the President, as usual, reacted with stubbornness of keeping Patang as Acting Minister. And now comes Daudzai replacing him for the important tasks in the months ahead.

In his speech on Monday, Daudzai used unusual language about the insurgency giving us further hints about the state of efforts to reach out to Taliban. He said, “It is a fact that the Afghan security forces are fighting against those insurgents who are being supported and equipped across the border and police have suffered severe casualties while fighting them."

He has been extremely cautious with his language throughout the years while talking about Pakistan, not just since he was appointed as Ambassador to Islamabad. Starting the new job with mentioning cross-border safe havens of the Taliban is unusual manner of Mr. Daudzai’s language. He alleged foreigners were training and funding militants for terrorist activities in Afghanistan, where 1,792 policemen had been killed and 2,758 others wounded in rebel attacks since March 20.

The new minister will have to get approval from the parliament after MPs come from summer break. They need to consider how effective a diplomat could be to handle security affairs and maintain neutrality and impartiality during the presidential elections, next year.