Second Karzai cabinet

On 19 December 2009 Karzai presented his list of 25 proposed cabinet members. There was no candidate named for the position of Foreign Minister, since Karzai wanted to keep to disputed foreign minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta until the International Conference on Afghanistan in London on 28 January 2010.[5][6][7][8][9][10] Furthermore, Karzai retained the heads of high-profile ministries of Defense and Interior, who were regarded in Washington as experienced professionals. The finance, justice, education, water and energy, women's affairs, agriculture, counter-narcotics and telecommunication ministers were renamed.[11][12][13] The most important portfolios were given a U.S. approval by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, when she attended Karzai's inauguration in November 2009.

Although only one warlord, Ismail Khan, was offered a cabinet position, the list proposed by Karzai mirrored the fact that he had to give in to demands of the main power-brokers that had helped him secure his re-election. The newly appointed minister of Haj, Enayatullah Baleegh, is a senior member of the Ettehad-e Islami of Abdul Rasul Sayyaf; the proposed minister of Public Welfare, Mirza Husain Abdullahi, is an ally of Mohammad Mohaqeq, as is the candidate for the ministry of commerce, Ghulam Mohamad Eylaghi. Vice-President Mohammad Fahim has two loyals on the list with the nomination of Wais Barmak and Enayatullah Nazari, as has vice-president Karim Khalili with the renomination of Sarwar Danish and General Khodaidad. Pir Seyyed Gailani is represented by the nomination of his son, Seyyed Hamed Gailani, as Minister of Border and Tribal Affairs. Seyyed Mohammad Amin Fatemi, the incumbent minister for public health, is affiliated with the Nejat-e Melli of Sibghatullah Mojaddedi. Finally, the Jombesh-e Melli, of strongman Abdul Rashid Dostum has two high-ranking members on the list with the deputy head of the party, Mohammad Ismail Munshi, named as Minister of Labour and Social Affairs and Dr. Mohammadullah Batash, a former Secretary of the Jombesh General Council as Minister of Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation.[14]

Shortly before Karzai presented his list of nominees, the Wolesi Jirga, the Lower House of the Afghan Parliament, after three days of debating, decided against giving trust vote to ministers with dual citizenship.[15] However, Karzai's appointee for Minister of Finance, Dr. Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal, also holds the Canadian citizenship. In the end the parliament dropped the issue and voted upon Zakhilwal's candidacy.

By presenting his list of candidates, Karzai asked the parliament to create a new Ministry for Martyred and Disabled Affairs, for which he named Taj Ali Saber, a member of the Khost Provincial council, as minister. The Parliament however didn't agree and voted only upon the candidacy of Munshi as minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Disabled.

Karzai received harsh criticism for only including one woman, Husna Banu Ghazanfar, in his team. Furthermore, the incumbent minister of Women's Affairs was considered weak.[16] So on 23 December, at a news conference with the Belgian prime minister Leterme, he announced that he planned to create from part of the ministry of education a "ministry to fight illiteracy", and that he intended to nominate a woman to head it. Female politicians would also be appointed to preside several independent commissions and deputy minister’s posts.[17]

The same day Karzai changed the candidacy of Gul Agha Sherzai, initially mentioned as Minister of Reconstruction, into the candidacy of incumbent minister Yusuf Pashtun. Wazhma Zurmati was named as Minister of Illiteracy, but just like the new ministry of the Martyrs and Disabled, the parliament didn't agree with its creation and didn't vote upon her candidacy. The parliament also didn't vote upon the candidacy of Anwar Jegdelek, a former mayor of Kabul, as minister of Parliamentary affairs. Since this ministry is designed to merely coordinate the relations of Parliament with the other pillars of the State, this is not a position that requires parliamentary approval.[14]

The Wolesi Jirga or Lower House of the Afghan parliament voted on the list on 2 January. Since the session was attended by 232 of the 249 Parliamentary members, 117 votes (50%+1) were necessary for acceptance. But a crisis emerged, when the count of the votes made clear that the parliament had rejected two-thirds of the nominated persons.[18][19] Of the 24 nominees, only seven were accepted.[20][21][22][23] The rules of the wolesi jirga prevented nominees from being put forward again and since the parliament was scheduled to begin a 45-day winter vacation 3 days later, it seemed that Karzai would have to go into the international conference of Afghanistan with a largely incomplete cabinet.[24] But On 4 January, Karzai requested the parliament to delay its winter recess, so members could consider a new list of nominees.[25][26][27] The parliament decided to take a short break of three days and demanded Karzai to come up with a list of names, including a candidate for the post of Foreign Affairs.[28]

Of the seven candidates that were approved by the parliament, five were incumbent ministers who had been nominated for the same post. The other two approved ministers, Wahidullah Shahrani and Sayed Makhdum Raheen, were respectively an incumbent minister on another post and a former minister. Seven other incumbent ministers were rejected, most notable the only woman on the list, Hosn Banu Ghazanfar, and the powerful warlord Ismail Khan.

Since no women had been approved in the first round and Karzai had faced criticism for not including enough women in his team, this second list contained the names of three female candidates: Amina Afzali for Social Affairs, Suraya Dalil for Public Health and Palwasha Hassan for Women's Affairs.

Zaraar Ahmad Moqbel was named as anti-narcotics minister. He had been Afghanistan's interior minister in 2008 and early 2009 but was removed from that post by Karzai under pressure from the UN special representative in Afghanistan, Kai Eide.[31]

In a later state, before the vote, the list was expanded with a seventeenth candidate, Abdul Qodus Hamidi for the post of Telecommunications.

There was also harsh criticism of this second list. While most comments on the first list were aimed at suspected links of candidates to warlords, this time lawmakers complained that many on the list lacked the experience needed to take on cabinet posts.[32] According to Wolesi Jirga member Fawzai Kofi, "this list is much weaker than the previous one."[31]

Parliament again confirmed seven ministers, bringing the total to fourteen, leaving 11 ministriess without an approved minister. Among the confirmed ministers was Zarar Moqbel, a prominent leader of the Jamiat-e Islami who had received harsh allegations of corruption and unsavoury appointments during his tenure as Minister of Interior. However, he played an important role in Karzai's re-election campaign and is said to have played the game of patronage and payoffs well. He received the large number of 161 votes of confidence.[33]

Arsala Jamal had a similar story. He had to leave his post of Governor of Khost due to allegations of corruption and also served as member of Karzai’s re-election campaign team. He, however, is allied with the Hezb-e Islami and was not confirmed by parliament.

The only woman that was appointed is Amina Afzali, a former Minister of Youth and affiliated with the Jamiat-e Islami. Palwasha Hassan and Suraya Dalil, the other two female candidates who had extensive careers in Afghan NGOs, were both rejected.

With Zalmai Rassoul confirmed, Afghanistan received a new and Minister of Foreign Affairs, who was close to Karzai, just before the start of the important London Conference. Rassoul also had good connections with the former royal family of king Zahir Shah. That was also the case for Habibullah Ghaleb, a member of the Afghan National Liberation Front of former president Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, who was confirmed as Minister of Justice.

Engineer Abdul Rahim, a senior member of the Jamiat-e Islami and close associate to former President Burhanuddin Rabbani did not receive enough votes to become the minister of refugees. His nephew, Jarullah Mansouri, also a member of Jamiat but said to be closer to Vice-President Mohammad Faheem, did however gather enough votes and was approved as minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development.

Dr Yusuf Niazi became the new Minister of Haj, and the leader of the (officially registered branch of) Hezb-e Islami, Abdul Hadi Arghandiwal, was confirmed as Minister of Economy.[33]

Karzai decided not to push for a third list before the international conference to fill the vacant positions, but instead to keep some of the candidates on as 'acting ministers' who were leading their ministry without official approval of Parliament. The following persons functioned as acting minister until at least July 2010.

This third list contained the names of seven candidate ministers. The other five ministries that still didn't have an approved minister are still run by their acting ministers. This third list included Anwarul Haq Ahadi, who had been rejected in January for the post of Ministry of Economic Affairs; Abdul Qadus Hamidi, who had been rejected for the post of Telecommunications Minister; and Sarwar Danish, who had been rejected for the post of Justice Minister and had been acting minister of Higher Education ever since.

General Bismullah Mohammadi, the Chief of Staff of the Afghan National Army, was named the new Interior Minister. The Governor of Kandahar, Assadullah Khalid, was named Minister of Border and Tribal Affairs. Daud Ali Najafi, who oversaw Afghanistan's election commission during the flawed presidential elections of 2009, was on the list as Minister of Transport and Aviation.

Five of the seven candidates were approved by the Wolesi Jirga.[35] Only Sarwar Danish and Daud Ali Najafi were rejected. Since then Karzai has kept Danish and Najafi as acting ministers.

Daudzai and Khpalwak were confirmed on 25 September 2013.[48] The other five ministers were all approved on December 29, 2013.[49]