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

A Major Success for the Unity Government

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A Major Success for the Unity Government

The approval of 16 cabinet nominees by the Wolesi Jirga on Saturday came as a major development ending months of administrative and leadership uncertainty in the government. All 16 cabinet nominees managed to secure votes of confidence of the Lower House of the Parliament. The approval of the cabinet picks as a full package was unexpected for many as most of the nominees had been rejected by the Wolesi Jirga in the previous round of voting. With the Saturday voting deciding the fate of a majority of the cabinet posts, the government cabinet formation is now almost finalized, with only the defense post remaining vacant. With the cabinet now almost fully functional, the leaders of the National Unity Government (NUG) hope they will be able to better run government affairs and get the ailing economy back on track.

After seven months of delays in forming the cabinet, the development came as a major success for Afghanistan’s unity government. In an attempt to complete the cabinet as quickly as possible, the government had asked the Parliament to approve the new nominees. Previously, President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and CEO Abdullah Abdullah had promised major reforms after they agreed on formation of the unity government. However, their efforts faced obstacles as they were not able to quickly agree on nominations for the government posts and resolve the fate of the cabinet. The prolonged process of approving the nominees by the Lower House of the parliament resulted to increased disappointments among the public.

In Saturday’s voting, most of the cabinet nominees managed to secure far more votes than the number required for being approved as ministers. While the unanimous approval of the cabinet nominees’ package was mostly welcomed by the public, there have also been questions regarding the u-turn approach of the MPs to the approval of the cabinet nominees compared to the previous round. In the previous round, the situation was tense when the nominees presented their plans and on the day of voting, while this time the mood was far more optimistic among the MPs. Some have doubts that there may have been trading and secret deals between the MPs and cabinet nominees for votes of confidence. However, the fact is that many factors had been involved in the approval of all of the government nominees in Saturday’s voting in the parliament.

One of the major reasons behind the unanimous voting on Saturday was of the urgency to end the chaotic situation and enable the government to perform efficiently. The delayed approval of the government cabinet by the MPs had bought criticisms for the house. It was believed that the Lower House of the parliament was in part responsible for the increasing security, administrative and economic challenges in the country. The members of the parliament felt responsible in this regard and therefore, responded the call from the government officials and approved the cabinet picks. In addition to that, top political figures and government leaders as well as the introduced nominees all made efforts to convince the MPs to approve the nominees. According to reports, many of the cabinet nominees talked to the members of the parliament to vote for them. All these factors resulted to the unexpected outcome of the Saturday voting in the Lower House of the parliament.

With the government in limbo in last seven months, caretaker ministers run the government and public day to day affairs. The caretaker government officials in the center and the provinces had no sufficient authority in running the administrative affairs of the relevant departments or provinces. Many crucial activities in government departments like human resource and development affairs of the government had been virtually stalled as the officials had been stripped of their power and authority to run those activities. This had caused major insufficiencies in performances of the government departments and some aspects of the government functionality were effectively crippled. Despite that the leaders of the NUG had promised to curtail corruption, the ineffective governance in the past seven months did not help achieving the pledges of the unity government leaders. It is expected that the finalization of the government cabinet would quickly enable the government to restore efficient governance in the country and improve the overall situation.

Despite the major step forward, a number of key government posts are not filled. The government has not been able to introduce a nominee for the key defense ministry as there seem to be differences between the NUG leaders. Also, the NUG is expected to appoint heads of the Supreme Court and the Attorney General Office. Given the adverse security conditions, the government has been under increasing pressures to resolve the fate of the key security post. In recent weeks, there have been deadly security incidents across the country. Killing of dozens of army soldiers in northern Badakhshan province caused public outrage. Many believe that the delay in introducing defense nominee has resulted to uncertainty in the ministry of defense. Many attributed the carnage to lack of leadership from the ministry of defense.

The ongoing security challenges may further compound if the ministry remains without a minister. With the fighting season going on, policy and army are going to engage in fierce fighting across the country. Afghan security forces have already launched operations to contain the insurgency and push back the resurgent Taliban and the newly emerging Islamic State group. This year will be a critical test for the government of Afghanistan to lead the campaign against the Taliban and other militant groups along with embarking on peace negotiations. A fully functional government will be better positioned to provide the political support and consensus for devising an extensive plan for the anti-insurgency campaign.

The approval of about two thirds of the government cabinet was a major success for the NUG after months of delays in conclusion of the cabinet formation. The people of Afghanistan expect rapid improvements to the situation in the country and better performance from the government. Now, it is time that the government leaders set aside their remaining differences and quickly act to fill the remaining key posts of the government and the judiciary system.

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