News Analysis: Forming of Afghan cabinet long delayed due to inner political wrangling

Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani after assuming office last September vowed to form a cabinet within 45 days, but the majority of ministries are still being run by acting ministers, causing mayhem that affected Afghan life in all fields, Afghan political observers opined.

Since taking office, President Ghani, according to observers, after hard consultation and bargaining with his former electoral challenger who is serving as chief executive in the government, Abdullah Abdullah, has twice introduced the list of minister nominees to Wolesi Jirga or the lower house of parliament for approval, but has, as yet, failed to form a complete cabinet.

The first list of cabinet nominees composed of 25 prospective ministers and two equivalent posts (head of the national spy agency and the president of the central bank) was referred to the lower house of parliament on Jan. 20 for confirmation almost four months after the presidential inauguration. Only eight of those had been approved.

To complete the cabinet, the president submitted the second list of nominees consisted of 16 new and old faces on March 21 to the lower house of parliament, but the house has yet to vote as the scrutiny process of the nominees' backgrounds is ongoing.

However, no one has been nominated for the key post of defense minister in the new list.

The president and his government's chief executive, according to observers, have differences in opinion over who should be picked for defense minister and chief of army staff.

Successive delays in cabinet formation are taking place amid unabated militancy in war-wracked Afghanistan where the hardliner Taliban fighters, according to political watchers, will likely increase activities in spring and summer commonly known as fighting season in Afghanistan.

The extremist militants in their latest spate of violent offensives have killed 22 Afghan security personnel in the northern Badakhshan province and as a means of terrorizing security personnel they beheaded some 10 soldiers after capturing them alive.

"Internal differences between the leaders of the national unity government are the main reason for failure of the government to have a cabinet," political analyst and former Commerce Minister Mohammad Amin Farhang told Xinhua.

The national unity government is composed of two electoral rival teams, respectively led by Ghani and Abdullah who contested presidential elections in April 2014. But both sides had claimed victory at the polls.

Their tussle over the election results had brought the war-torn Afghanistan to the edge of the worst political crisis but was over in August last year with the mediation of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry after both Ghani and Abdullah agreed to form a national unity government with the former as president and latter as chief executive, a post equal to that of prime minister.

"Both the leaders have been bargaining to secure key ministries for their men in the government and that is why they could not reach a consensus on cabinet formation," the well-respected analyst observed.

The negative impact of the government's successive failure to form a cabinet can be seen in all fields of society, the former commerce minister said, adding that the country's security situation has deteriorated and economic activities have been hampered.

Farhang gave the warning amid increasing Taliban-led militancy and strengthening foothold by the so-called Islamic State (IS) in the militancy-plagued Afghanistan where only on Friday nearly two dozen security personnel were killed, some of them beheaded in the northern Badakhshan province.

"Each of the leaders (Ghani and Abdullah) are monopolists and attempting to monopolize the power by appointing key posts to their men and their continued disagreement over picking up ministers has added to the suffering of people," former parliamentarian Bilqis Roshan said in talks with local media on Monday. Endi