Afghan rebels pick fundamentalist for Prime Minister

Press, 20 February 1989, Page 8

Afghan rebels pick fundamentalist for Prime Minister

NZPA-Reuter Islamabad

Feuding Afghan rebels on Saturday agreed to the nomination of a fundamentalist as Prime Minister of a proposed interim government for Afghanistan and authorised him to recommend a Cabinet, a moderate leader said.

Sibghatulla Mojaddidi told a news conference the three moderate parties in the seven-party mujahideen alliance based in Pakistan had agreed to the nomination of the United States-edu-cated engineer, Ahmad Shah, to break a weeklong deadlock on the issue. He said Mr Shah’s choice of Cabinet members would be put to a consultative council, or shura, for approval. Western diplomats have stressed the need for unity among the groups meeting in the shura as they strive to oust President Najibullah’s Moscowbacked Government in

Kabul. Mr Mojaddidi, head of the Afghan National Liberation Front (A.N.L.F.), said as a gesture of unity he had also voluntarily relinquished with immediate effect the chairmanship of the alliance in favour of a fellow-moder-ate Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi.

As head of the alliance for the next eight months, Mr Mohammadi automatically would become interim head of state, he said.

Mr Mojaddidi denied an announcement by the fundamentalist - funded Afghan news agency that the nomination of Mr Mohammadi as head of State and Mr Shah as Prime Minister had been approved by the shura.

Mr Shah’s approval as Prime Minister was subject to the shura approving his proposed Cabinet today, Mr Mojaddidi said, adding that a completely new set of nominations would be needed if the Cabinet failed to get a vote of confidence.

Qaribur-Rahman Saeed, head of the news agency, told a news conference earlier that the nominations of Mr Mohammadi and Mr Shah were approved by shura delegates crying out “Allah-o-ak-bar” (God is great).

He said the shura would today approve an interim Cabinet drawn up by Shah and Mr Mohammadi. Informed shura sources said a 35-member Cabinet would be proposed, but some seats would be left empty for the Iran-based mujahideen alliance, representing Afghanistan’s minority Shi’ite Muslims,

which has boycotted the shura. The guerrillas are convinced that without the protection of Soviet troops, Najibullah’s Administration will collapse within months, if not weeks. Najibullah dismisses this idea. A spokesman for the Iran-based rebels declined to comment on the latest developments, but stressed they were not bound to respect any decision taken in their absence. A shura commission on Friday offered the Iranbased rebels 70 seats in the shura, 10 more than previously, in a bid to draw them to the conference. But they stood firm in their demand for 100 seats. A shura spokesman said a consultative council would be elected within six months and it would appoint a head of State and ratify the interim Government two months later.