Government’s continued use of acting ministers has once again come under harsh criticism by MPs who on Monday reiterated calls to National Unity Government leaders to fill the posts.
This comes after MPs fired seven ministers in November for under spending development budgets.
On Monday, lawmakers refused to give votes of confidence to three new ministers, including that of the minister of defense, minister of mines, and minister of labor, social affairs, martyrs and disabled.
They said they would not vote until replacements for the seven sacked ministers had been nominated.
Tariq Shah Bahrami the nominee for minister of defense, Faizullah Zaki nominee for minister of labor and social affairs and Nargis Nehan the nominee for minister of mines were expected to get votes of confidence from parliament on Monday.
In November, MPs dismissed seven ministers from their jobs over their failure to spend their development budgets, a move which added to the ongoing problems of President Ashraf Ghani and CEO Abdullah Abdullah who had for months reportedly bickered over filling of cabinet posts.
“We should not conduct voting for the ministerial nominees unless government introduces new faces for the caretakers,” said MP Abdul Qayoum Sajjadi.
“The government has sent the qualifications of three ministerial nominees to parliament, but we will not conduct voting for the ministerial nominees until the government introduces new faces to replace those sacked from the job,” said speaker of the house Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi.
Later, Ghani challenged the legality of parliament’s no-confidence motion against his cabinet ministers and instead referred the case to the Afghan Supreme Court to issue a ruling by interpreting the constitution. However, the supreme court has still not announced its decision.
The seven ministers fired were ministers of foreign affairs Salahuddin Rabbani, labor and social affairs Nasrin Oryakhil, public works Mahmoud Baligh, education Assadullah Hanif Balkhi, transport and civil aviation Mohammadullah Batash, and minister of technology and higher education Farida Mohmand.
Currently the Ministry of Information and Culture (MoIC) and the Ministry of Borders and Tribal Affairs (MoBTA) are also run by acting ministers.