AfghanistanAfghanistan: Who’s Who in the Taliban’s “Inclusive” New Administration
It appears that the Taliban regime intends to completely revamp the structure of government when it formally embarks upon its administration from 1 September — for example, the Taliban plans to get rid of the position of the elected president, and, more importantly, it aims not to elevate or project a single individual to the position of supreme leader. One thing is not going to change: The individuals who are going to run the main government departments and security services are all hard-liners.
As Western powers frantically scramble to evacuate their citizens and the Afghan nationals who worked for them, the nature of the Taliban leadership’s intentions for how it intends to govern remains obscure. But if various messages fed in recent days to the international media are to be believed, the Islamic fundamentalist regime intends to completely revamp the structure of government when it formally embarks upon its administration from 1 September.
Apart from designating the country as Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan – the same name as they used when they previously ruled the country from 1996 until 2001 – the Taliban also have some novel plans for the nature and character of their future government.
In a significant departure from the earlier republican model established by the US-backed administration between 2001-2021, it plans to get rid of the position of the elected president. But, more importantly, it aims not to elevate or project a single individual to the position of supreme leader (as is the case in the neighboring Islamic Republic of Iran). Instead, it intends to form an executive council consisting of 12 prominent leaders.
With those objectives in mind, on August 23 the group held a Loya Jirga, or grand council, of nearly 800 prominent scholars. The council met to discuss the framework of a future government and the social, economic and political trajectory that Afghanistan should follow.
Following the discussion, it provisionally appointed several interim heads of ministries and agencies. These include the crucial interior ministry, the ministry of finance, ministry of defense and the intelligence service.
Hardliners Galore
Mullah Ibrahim Sadr the head of the interior ministry is a seasoned war veteran. In the 1980s he was part of the mujahideen forces fighting against the Soviet occupation. Later he joined the Taliban and fought against other opposition forces during the country’s civil war (1989-1996). An extreme hardliner in his religious views, Mullah Sadr used his days in the previous Taliban government to develop close contacts with jihadist or terrorist groups and became quite close to al-Qaeda. He went underground when the US-led operation unseated the Taliban government in 2001.
He would, however, resurface later in 2016 as the Taliban’s military chief. Since then Sadr has been instrumental in leading several strategic offensives against the coalition forces. It is his relentless war against the coalition forces which led The Asia Times to call him “the man who drove the US out of Afghanistan”.
There has been talk of the Taliban
