Afghan President Hamid Karzai will ban ministers in his future cabinet from holding dual nationality, his spokesman said Tuesday in a move which some officials fear could sideline reformists. Karzai could have used a constitutional loophole to avoid such a ban, which will largely affect the well-heeled technocrats who sat out most of Afghanistan's long war years abroad.
"The president has now decided that all ministers in the future cabinet will have only one nationality: that of Afghanistan. Those ministers who have dual citizenship will have to renounce their citizenship of the second country," his spokesman Jawed Ludin told reporters.
Although the constitution allows Karzai to appoint ministers who hold another citizenship, such appointments would have to be approved by a parliament, which is not likely to be elected before next summer. Senior cabinet members in the interim government with dual citizenship - often American - include Finance Minister Ahraf Ghani, Interior Minister Ahmed Ali Jalali and Information and Culture Minister Sayed Makhdum Raheen.
Ludin said the constitution gave Karzai leeway and left the final decision to parliament but added: "The spirit of the constitution requires ministers to have only one nationality - that of Afghanistan."
Karzai would also enforce the rule that all ministers have a higher education, Ludin said - ruling out many former anti-Soviet fighters who stayed in the country as decades of conflict shattered the education system.
The two conditions reflect a widening schism in Karzai's likely government between foreign-educated technocrats who sat out the wars, and those who stayed to battle the Soviets and then, in many cases, to fight each other. Almost seven weeks since his presidential victory was confirmed, Karzai has failed to name his line-up. He has been seen as vacillating between the two sides as he strives to keep both happy.
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