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Afghan parliament backs Karzai justice nominee but again rejects most others

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The Wolesi Jirga, Afghanistan's lower house of Parliament, Saturday narrowly approved Habibullah Galib as the country's new Minister of Justice but overall rejected 10 of President Hamid Karzai's 17 nominees for cabinet positions, Karzai's second such setback in two weeks. A McClatchy Newspapers report quoted Sima Samar, director of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission as saying that Ghalib's appointment was "a backwards step." Earlier this month, the Jirga rejected 17 out of 24 initial Karzai cabinet nominees, including incumbent Justice Minister Sarwar Danish after he was criticized for his inability to control Afghan jails and the mistreatment of detainees in Afghan Custody. Karzai's new list had omitted the names of all those rejected two weeks ago. Karzai was also forced to withdraw the name of one nominee after he could not return from Canada in time for nominations. Karzai's administration has been alleged to be rife with corruption. In November, Afghan authorities announced that they had questioned two cabinet ministers on corruption charges. Karzai had previously vowed to fight corruption in his second term inaugural address amid pressure from the international community. Late last year Afghanistan was ranked the second most corrupt country in the world by Transparency International, behind only Somalia.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on January 16, 2010 (boomark / email).