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Afghan rivals seal historic pact
Northern Alliance retains key ministries

Koenigswinter (Germany), December 5
Four Afghan factions signed a pact today to create a new administration headed by an anti-Taliban battlefield commander, concluding a historic agreement aimed at restoring peace and stability to the war-ravaged nation.

Hamid Karzai, a moderate Muslim whose fighters are engaged in a battle to oust the Taliban from their last stronghold of Kandahar will head the administration.

Envoys of the Northern Alliance, former King Mohammad Zahir Shah and two smaller exile groups signed the UN-mediated accord after nine days of talks at the luxury Petersberg Hotel overlooking Bonn, Germany.

The consensus on the Cabinet triggers a speedy transfer of power in Kabul, scheduled for December 22, and secures billions in promised aid to reconstruct the country.

The agreement establishes a 30-member interim Cabinet headed by Karzai, meant as the first step towards a broad-based government representing a range of Afghanistan’s ethnic groups and regions. UN spokesman Ahmed Fawzi said 10 or 11 names still had to be approved on the Cabinet list.

These have not been filled yet, because they are in the process of contacting the candidates, Fawzi said. But I can confirm Karzai is the Chairman of the interim administration.

The Northern Alliance controls more than half of the 30 ministries, including the powerful Defence, Foreign and Interior portfolios. The delegation of Rome-based exiles loyal to the former king received at least eight ministries, including Finance and Education.Two women were named to posts, Sima Smar as a Deputy Premier and Minister for Women’s Affairs and Suhaila Seddiqi as Health Minister.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday said it was delighted by the UN-brokered power-sharing deal signed by rival Afghan leaders in Bonn. Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said the news of the deal on setting up an interim administration for post-Taliban Afghanistan was broken to President Pervez Musharraf when he was chairing a meeting of his Cabinet. Agencies

Karzai's Shimla connection
Rakesh Lohumi
Tribune News Service

Shimla, December 5
Mr Hamid Karzai, who has been chosen to head the new government in Afghanistan, has a Shimla connection.

He spent about two years in the "Queen of Hills' pursuing his Master's degree in political science from Himachal Pradesh University in the early eighties.

One of his teachers, Prof A.R. Khan, recollects that he was a liberal and open minded Muslim who took deep interest in politics. He was tall and handsome and an inquisitive student.

Since he also came from the Afghan stock he struck immediate equation with him. "We discussed the politics of Afghanistan for hours together.

Prof S.R. Mehrotra, who was then the Chairman of the Academic Affairs Committee of the university, has vivid memories of his interaction with Mr Karzai. He breathed politics even at that young age and most of his conversation with him centered on political issues concerning his troubled country and, of course, India, he recalls.

He was quite sharp but not very bright in studies, perhaps due to the wide difference in the academic standards of the two countries.