Karzai to reshuffle cabinet

* Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah is likely to be replaced

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai is likely to ‘significantly’ reshuffle his cabinet in the next 24 hours, inducting new faces in key portfolios, officials said on Sunday.

“Most likely the cabinet will be presented to the parliament either today or tomorrow,” Karzai’s chief advisor on international politics, Dadfar Rangin Spanta, told AFP.

He would not give details but said parliament would take a few days to approve the cabinet.

Under a law adopted by the lower house earlier this month, each minister has to be voted on individually by the parliament.

Another official at Karzai’s palace said the current 28-member cabinet would be ‘significantly’ reshuffled with several ministers, including Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, set to be replaced by new faces.

“A number of ministers have been replaced by new faces, Abdullah Abdullah is also dropped off the list,” said the official who requested anonymity.

The parliament inaugurated in December last year is the first legislature elected in Afghanistan in more than 30 years. AFP

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