DUSHANBE, September 17, 2012, Asia-Plus – On Saturday September 15, Afghanistan’s lower house (Wolesi Jirga) of parliament approved candidates for the posts of the ministers of interior and defense as well as the chief of the national security agency.

According to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Wolesi Jirga approved Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, formerly Interior Minister, for the role of Defense Minister, by vote 128-98.  The former Deputy Interior Minister, Ghulam Mujtaba Patang, was as approved as Interior Minister, by a vote of 129-92.  The former Border and Tribal Affairs Minister, Asadullah Khalid, was appointed as the new Director of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) by a vote of 134 for and 78 against.

Only one of the nominated Ministers, Haji Din Mohammad, a former Governor of Kabul Province, failed to win approval.  He received 117 votes in support while 108 votes against him, UNAMA said.

Reuters reported that parliament, in a rebuff to Karzai, in August voted to remove Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak and Interior Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi over deteriorating security, corruption accusations clouding the government and cross-border attacks blamed on Pakistan.

But Karzai appointed Mohammadi, an ethnic Tajik with a strong powerbase in northern Afghanistan, as Defence Minister, while removing spy agency chief Rahmatullah Nabil, charged with countering the Taliban and cutting insider attacks by Afghan police and soldiers on foreign troops, Reuters said.