News - Afghanistan

Afghanistan's House of Representatives on Saturday approved President Hamid Karzai's candidates for the posts of the head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the governor of the Central Bank and a member of the High Office of Oversight.

At total of 228 MPs attended the session and each of the candidates needed 115 "yes" votes to secure his position.

The new NDS director, Rahmatullah Nabil, got 208 votes in his favour; the new head of the Central Bank, Noorullah Delawari, got 173 vote of approval; and Mohammad Munir got 155 votes endorsing his membership of the High Office of Oversight.

At the session, the three officials outlined their future plans and strategies, and responded to the questions of the representatives.

Mr Nabil has serviced as the acting director of the NDS for the past year and President Hamid Karzai put him forward to continue in the role after MPs praised the security measures put in place during the four-day Loya Jirga earlier this month.

Mr Delawari worked as head of the Central Bank from 2004 to 2007.

Since the new house was elected last year, MPs have been asking Mr Karzai to put forward candidates for these key positions. But the recent disputes in parliament over members who were thrown out resulted in this being postponed until now.