Taliban defers new govt till today, Baradar likely head
Kabul/Peshawar, Sept. 3: The formation of a new government of Afghanistan by the Taliban, which was due to be announced Friday, has now been delayed by a day, its spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said, adding that the announcement will now be made on Saturday.
Sources said the head of the Taliban’s political office in Qatar, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, one of the Taliban’s cofounders, is likely to head the new government. He will be joined by Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, son of late Taliban co-founder Mullah Omar, and Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, in senior positions in the government, sources said. “All the top leaders have arrived in Kabul, where preparations are in final stages to announce the new government,” a Taliban official said.
Mr Stanekzai, who was often described as the “foreign minister” of the interim Taliban setup in Doha, had recently held discussions with India’s ambassador to Qatar Deepak Mittal at the Indian embassy in Doha.
It is learnt that the hardline Islamists plan to have an Iran-type system of governance in Kabul, with the group’s top religious leader, Mullah Hebatullah Akhundzada, as Afghanistan’s supreme authority, ranking above the President. In Iran, the supreme leader has the
final say on all
political, religious and military affairs, and appoints the heads of the military, government and judiciary.
The consultations on the composition of the new Cabinet have almost been
finalised, Mufti Inamullah Samangani, a top official in the Taliban’s information and culture commission, has said. He made it clear Mullah Akhundzada will be the supreme leader,
and there should be no question on this, indicating the President will work under his oversight. This top Taliban religious leader was serving at a mosque in the Kachlaak area of Pakistan’s Balochistan province for the past 15 years. Mufti Samangani said that under the new setup, governors will control the provinces, while district governors will be in charge of their districts.
The name of the new governance system, the national flag and national anthem are yet to be finalised.
Meanwhile, Taliban fighters battled forces loyal to the vanquished Ashraf Ghani-led republic in the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul. The Taliban, which seized Kabul on August 15 after sweeping across most of the country, faced resistance in the Panjshir Valley, where there have been reports of heavy fighting and casualties. Several thousand fighters of regional militias — such as the erstwhile Northern Alliance — and remnants of the government’s armed forces have massed in the rugged valley under the leadership of Ahmad Massoud, the son of former mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud. Efforts to negotiate a settlement seem to have broken down, with each side blaming the other for the failure.
The new government’s most immediate priority would be to avert the collapse of an economy grappling with drought and the ravages of a 20-year conflict that killed around 240,000 Afghans before the US forces completed a tumultuous pullout on August 30.
At stake is whether the Taliban can govern a country facing economic meltdown, a humanitarian disaster and threats to security and stability from rival jihadist groups, including a local offshoot of Islamic State.
While the Taliban have spoken of their desire to form a consensus government, a source said the interim government being formed now will consist solely of Taliban members. It will have 25 ministries, with a consultative council, or shura, of 12 Muslim scholars, a source added.
Also being planned within six to eight months is a “loya jirga”, or grand assembly, bringing together elders and representatives across Afghan society to discuss a constitution and the structure of the future government, the source said.
In a positive development Friday, a senior executive of Western Union said the remittance firm was resuming money-transfer services to Afghanistan in line with a US push to keep up humanitarian work.
The Taliban have promised safe passage for any foreigners or Afghans left behind by the huge airlift that ended when US troops withdrew ahead of the August 31 deadline. But with Kabul international airport still closed, many were seeking to flee over land.
The Doha-based Al Jazeera television channel reported Friday that a senior official of Qatar’s foreign ministry had landed in Afghanistan as the Gulf state stepped up efforts to reopen Kabul airport. Qatar, working with Turkey, has sent two other planes carrying technical teams to assess the damage in the airport.