March – October 2020: New cabinet nominees and acting ministers after Ghani's inauguration
Despite the parallel inauguration of Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani as presidents on 9 March 2020 and the subsequent uncertainty and threat of a parallel government, Ghani in his inauguration speech said he would postpone cabinet appointments for two weeks to allow for the necessary opportunity for cooperation and alignment with all prominent political factions involved in the election. In practice, he started the following appointments almost three weeks after the inauguration. Abdul Hadi Arghandiwal and Haneef Atmar were nominated as Finance and Foreign Affairs Minister respectively and started in their positions in an acting role in early April, while also approving Ahmad Zia Saraj in his role als head of NDS and Tahir Zuhair nominating as Information and Culture Minister but who only started acting on 9 June 2020. Ghani also nominated Mohammad Shakir Kargar as chief of staff and Fazal Mahmood Fazli as General Director of the Office of Administrative Affairs as cabinet members. Further nominations of cabinet posts were delayed. [175] Until 2 June 2020, Hasina Safi, Ahmad Jawed Osmani, Mahmud Karzai and Ajmal Ahmady were also introduced as acting Women's Affairs, Public Health and Urban Development Minister [176] and Governor of the Central Bank respectively, [177] followed by the nominations of Rangina Hamidi as Education and Haroon Chakhansuri as Mines and Petroleum Minister and other cabinet posts until 14 June 2020. [178] All cabinet posts up to this point were appointed by Ghani's camp. [139]
On 17 May, Ghani and Abdullah signed a power-sharing agreement. The agreement stipulates that Abdullah will introduce candidates for half the cabinet posts, including for some key ministries, and that provincial governors will be appointed based on an agreed rule. [179] [140] On 9 July, Abdullah introduced a list of cabinet nominees (that was regarded as incomplete as there were intra-camp differences) [180] to Ghani: Massoud Andarabi for Interior Affairs, Fazel Ahmed Manawi for Justice, Bashir Ahmad Tahyanj for Labor and Social Affairs, Noor Rahman Akhlaqi for Refugees and Repatriation, [181] Abas Basir for Transport and Civil Aviation, Sadat Mansoor Naderi for Economy, Anwar ul-Haq Ahady for Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, Kanishka Turkistani for Higher Education, Mohibullah Samim for Borders and Tribal Affairs, Nisar Ahmad Ghoryani for Commerce and Industry and Masooma Khawari for Communications and Information Technology, and Najib Aqa Fahim for the State Ministry for Martyrs and Disabled [182] and Mohammad Mustafa Mastoor for the State Ministry for Peace . [183] Other news outlets named fewer [184] or more [139] ministries allocated to Abdullah while a lot more were still up to discussion. No appointments were made by the Abdullah camp by early August 2020, but rather Ghani re-nominated the already acting Assadullah Khalid and Massoud Andarabi for the key ministries of Defense and Interior, although it was reported that this was a joined decision by both Ghani and Abdullah, at least in the case of Andarabi as the Minister of Interior. [139] In late July it was reported that Ghani had rejected five ministerial candidates due to various reasons. [185] During all this time, the ministries without new nominations were still headed by the previous ministers and acting ministers. [139]
On 31 August 2020, the Administrative Office of the President announced that nine ministers and one state minister had been appointed by Abdullah who immediately started in an acting role. [186] [187] These minister nominees have largely been the same as those from his introduction on 9 July, with the exception of Kanishka Turkestani who was replaced by Abas Basir as nominee for the Ministry of Higher Education, who in turn was replaced by Qudratullah Zaki as nominee for the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation. Also, Mastoor was reintroduced as Minister of Economy instead of being nominated for the State Ministry for Peace . This role went to Sadat Mansoor Naderi who earlier was actually nominated as Minister of Economy. [182] Najib Aqa Fahim and Azizullah Ariafar have not been nominated for their intended role of State Minister for Martyrs and Disabled and Director General of the Independent Commission for Administrative Reform and Civil Service. [182] The appointed ministers have been officially introduced at the Presidential Palace on 15 September 2020. [188]
