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Karzai to take oath in Kabul on Wednesday

Shyam Bhatia in Kabul

Afghanistan's president-elect Hamid Karzai will take the oath of office on Wednesday, June 19, before the assembled members of the Loya Jirga, officials in Kabul have confirmed.

Karzai will also seek the assembly's approval of key Cabinet appointments, such as the interior, defence, foreign affairs and finance.

But a decision on naming a vice-president and a chief justice for the incoming government, which will remain in office until elections are held in 2004, has been delayed for the time being.

Outgoing Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and the presidential special adviser, Abdul Ghani Ahmedzai, confirmed these developments at a press briefing in Kabul on Tuesday.

Abdul Ghani apologised for what he described as an earlier 'honest lapse of memory' when he told reporters that Karzai did not need the Loya Jirga's endorsement for key Cabinet appointments.

Although there is evidence of progress in the continuing political debate about how to shape Afghanistan's institutions, the 1,600 delegates to the Loya Jirga, or Grand Council, remain bitterly divided on many vital issues.

There is still no agreement on how to elect an interim Shoora, or mini-parliament, and whether it should have legislative or consultative powers.

Disagreements have also emerged on other key issues such as disarming the various militias and checking the powers of individual warlords.

Asked to explain the reasons for 23 years of war in Afghanistan, Abdullah said it started after a communist coup in the country and as a result of the 1979 Soviet invasion.

He also made an oblique reference to Islamabad's negative role by stating that "neighbours" had interfered by actively assisting individual warlords like Gulbuddin Hikmatyar to attack Kabul.

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