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Afghan parliament rejects most of Karzai's cabinet nominees
Afghanistan's parliament on Saturday rejected the majority of President Hamid Karzai's nominees for cabinet posts, state television showed.
Afghanistan's parliament on Saturday rejected the majority of President Hamid Karzai's nominees for cabinet posts, state television showed.
Of a total of 24 nominees, only seven were approved in a secret ballot by more than 200 parliamentarians, in a process that appears to have undermined the president's authority.
"Of the 24 nominees introduced to parliament, seven have succeeded in getting your vote of confidence," parliamentary speaker Mohammad Yunus Qanoni said after the counting finished.
The seven ministerial nominees who won approval included those who had been approved by Karzai's supporters in the international community as competent and clean technocrats.
Those rejected included a warlord, Ismail Khan, whom Karzai nominated for the post of water and energy minister, widely seen as a reward for supporting Karzai during the fraud-tainted August presidential election.
