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Ex-Taliban envoy seeks asylum in Pak

The former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, said on Sunday he had applied for political asylum in Pakistan. Zaeef is seen in prayer at his residence in Islamabad in this March 6, 2001 file photo. — Reuters photo

Islamabad, December 23
The former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Mr Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, and one of the best-known faces of the war on Afghanistan said today that he had applied for political asylum in Pakistan.

However, he said his application was only for temporary asylum in Pakistan, where he had served as the only spokesman for the fundamentalist militia during the US strikes on the isolated Taliban government.

“I have applied for asylum and I am waiting for a reply from the Pakistan government,” he said from the southwestern city of Quetta, near the border with Afghanistan.

Asked why he had applied for asylum instead of returning to his homeland where the Taliban have been toppled from power and his leader, the reclusive Mullah Mohammad Omar, was on the run, Mr Zaeef said the time was not right.

“I don’t feel it’s the right time to go back to my country yet,” he said, but he did not rule out going home one day.

Mr Zaeef had become famous as the Taliban’s principal voice to the outside world following the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

He was originally one of the three Taliban ambassadors, but Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates broke-off diplomatic relations under pressure from the USA in September, leaving Mr Zaeef as the sole spokesman.

The bespectacled 34-year-old ethnic Pashtun, with his bushy black beard, black turban, white tunic and loose trousers, kept up regular news conferences in Islamabad, which were broadcast almost daily around the world on live television.

He put forward the Taliban case, accompanied by a stream of jokes, and provided a line for communication with his isolated and reclusive leaders, until Pakistan ordered the closure of the Taliban embassy on November 22. Reuters

Afghan Cabinet discusses security

Kabul, December 23
Afghanistan’s new leader Hamid Karzai presided over the first meeting of his Cabinet today, addressing efforts to restore security to a country seeking peace after 23 years of war.

“Excellent, excellent. Absolutely perfect,” a beaming Karzai told reporters in a courtyard of the presidential palace outside the building where the meeting was held, when asked to describe the atmosphere at the talks.

“The main theme was security in Afghanistan,” he said.

The 30 Cabinet members, many of whom only returned to the country from exile to attend their inauguration yesterday, also discussed the re-establishment of a civil service in the whole of the country, he said.

Mr Karzai has appeared animated and self-confident since taking office in a ceremony packed with turbaned tribal elders, soldiers in camouflage and Western-suited diplomats and the uniformed US General commanding the war, Tommy Franks.

Asked if he had slept well in his first night on the job, he laughed. “Oh, I slept well,” he said. Other ministers shared his upbeat outlook.

“The work began in a friendly atmosphere,” said Interior Minister Yunis Qanuni, the powerful commander of the police.

Mr Qanuni arrived at the meeting in a red pick-up truck, the transport of choice for both the vanquished Taliban and the Northern Alliance that defeated it, accompanied by around six bodyguards armed with Kalashnikov rifles.

“The issues which were discussed were mainly the priorities of the new government, which is mainly security in the country, as well as the revival of the administration in the provinces as well as in the cities,” he said.

“It was very friendly.” Reuters

Afghan Cabinet list

Kabul, December 23
Following is a list of members of Afghanistan’s interim government which was sworn in yesterday:

The list also specifies which camp the officials are from: the so-called Rome group of former king Mohammed Zahir Zhah, the United Front (UF) or the Northern Alliance and the so-called Peshawar group.

Of the 30 posts, 18 are from the Northern Alliance, 11 are from the Rome group, and one from the Peshawar group.

Chairman: Hamid Karzai (Rome)

Vice-Chair and Women’s Affairs: Dr Sima Samar (Rome)

Vice-Chair and Defence: Mohammad Qasim Fahim (UF)

Vice-Chair and Planning: Haji Muhammad Mohaqqeq (UF)

Vice-Chair and Water and Electricity: Shaker Kargar (UF)

Vice-Chair and Finance: Hedayat Amin Arala (Rome)

Members

Department of Foreign Affairs: Dr Abdullah Abdullah (UF)

Department of Interior: Mohammad Yunus Qanooni (UF)

Department of Commerce: Seyyed Mustafa Kazemi (UF)

Department of Mines and Industries: Mohammad Alem Razm (UF)

Department of Small Industries: Aref Noorzai (UF)

Department of Information and Culture:Dr Raheen Makhoom (Rome)

Department of Communication: Abdul Rahim (UF)

Department of Labour and Social Affairs: Mir Wais Sadeq (UF)

Department of Haj and Auqaf: Mohammad Hanif Balkhi (UF).

Department of Martyrs and Disabled: Adbullah Wardak (UF)

Department of Higher Education: Rassool Amin (UF)

Department of Public Health: Suhaila Seddiqi (UF)

Department of Rural Development: Abdul Malik Anwar (Rome)

Department of Urban Development: Haji Abdul Qadir (UF)

Department of Transport: Sultan Hamid Hamid (Rome)

Department for the Return of Refugees: Enayatullah Nazeri (UF)

Department of Agriculture: Sayed Hussein Anwari (UF)

Department of Irrigation: Haji M. Hussein (Peshawar)

Department of Justice: Abdul Rahim Karimi (UF)

Department of Air Transport and Tourism:Abdul Rahman (Rome)

Department of Border Affairs: Amanullah Zadra (Rome)

Department of Education: Ghulam M. Yailaki (Rome)

Department of Public Works: Abdul Khaleq Fazal (Rome)

Department of Reconstruction: Amin Farhang (Rome). AFP

Pervez endorses Karzai’s installation

Beijing, December 23
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has given a ringing endorsement of new Afghan leader Hamid Karzai as the head of the UN-backed administration got down to the business of rebuilding his war-ravaged land.

“I think he is an extremely able personality. He is the right choice to lead the interim government,’’ General Musharraf said of Mr Karzai in an interview broadcast today by the Chinese state television.

Soft-spoken aristocrat Karzai took the helm of the interim Afghan government at a ceremony in Kabul yesterday, blessed by the United Nations to start rebuilding the central Asian country after years of war.

“He has the potential and he has the desire and also he has the support... of everyone, I think,’’ said General Musharraf on the fourth day of a five-day visit to China.

He said he had spoken with Mr Karzai several times and expected to meet him soon.

The Afghan interim leader faces the daunting task of enforcing peace among warlords after years of fighting, ending hunger as the harsh winter sets in with crops destroyed by drought and reabsorbing five million refugees.

Three million Afghan refugees are in border camps or cities in Pakistan, whose economy was hit hard by cancelled orders and slumping trade after the September 11 attacks on the USA, General Musharraf said.

The refugees should be sent back as UN-led reconstruction gets going, he said. “One would like to shift all of them gradually, in a graduated form, back into Afghanistan,’’ General Musharraf said.

General Musharraf said Pakistan was bound by geography to work with its land-locked neighbour, traditionally dependent on trade through Pakistani ports. “We have to interact with each other in a harmonious manner. There is no choice between the two countries,’’ he said. He said the Afghan people should determine their future. “You can’t impose a solution in Afghanistan, you can only facilitate,’’ he said.

In portions of the interview broadcast yesterday, General Musharraf said there was a strong possibility that Saudi-born Muslim militant Osama bin Laden was killed in US bombing of the Tora Bora mountains in eastern Afghanistan this month. Reuters