The US invasion of Afghanistan in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks ended the Taliban's rule (1996 to 2001) in 2001, but resurfaced two decades later, again due to the US being forced to leave the country.
Of a 34-member interim Cabinet, 20 members remain under the burden of sanctions by the UN Security Council. Officially, it is called the interim (caretaker) Afghan Taliban government, installed in August 2021, but after the passage of around five years, it is still termed an interim government officially by the Taliban itself.
When elections are going to be held in Afghanistan, nobody knows. The Taliban’s track record from 1996 to 2001 clearly shows that they do not believe in elections, but the question irritating many minds is why they have termed it an ‘interim’ or ‘caretaker’ government for the last five years.
Although there is no doubt that between 2004 and 2020, four elections were held, only the first election in 2004 was considered largely fair and transparent, while the other three elections held in 2009, 2014, and 2019 were defined by severe fraud disputes.
However, after the Taliban took control of Kabul, the electoral system effectively ceased operation. This change led to the immediate end of the democratic cycle that had been in place for nearly two decades. The Independent Election Commission and the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission were formally dissolved by the new governing authority in December 2021.
The dissolution of these bodies, which employed over 1,000 people, eliminated the infrastructure required to administer future democratic polls. The current government has not established any alternative mechanism for elections or popular representation, effectively suspending the constitutional provisions for democratic procedures and the right to vote.
There is another surprising factor, though ignored by many, that when as many as 84,000 fighting Taliban and other affiliated groups were killed during the period 2001 to 2021, the ministers in the incumbent Interim Government remained safe.
Moreover, the composition of the Taliban government of Afghanistan shows that only three or four portfolios were allocated to other ethnic groups in the interim government, as most of them went to Pashtuns. While Pashtuns make up about half of Afghanistan's population, the rest, consisting of Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks, Turkmens, Balochs, Gujars, and Nuristanis, remain unrepresented in the new Taliban set-up.
The Taliban’s track record from 1996 to 2001 clearly shows that they do not believe in elections, but the question irritating many minds is why they have termed it an ‘interim’ or ‘caretaker’ government for the last five years
Another irritating point is that almost all of them remain powerful ministers or governors from the first Taliban government from 1996 to 2001. Many of them were apprehended but later released by the US. Amazingly, many of them remained members of the Doha (Qatar) negotiating team with the US, which resulted in an agreement between the US and the Taliban, paving the way for the US and other forces’ departure from Afghanistan and the installation of the Taliban government.
To begin with, Mullah Hasan Akhund (Head of Ministers) served as Kandahar's governor and vice president of the Council of Ministers until 2001 in the Taliban's first government. Mullah Ghani Baradar (Deputy Head of Ministers) was the provincial governor and deputy defence minister during the Taliban's first rule and subsequently headed the group's Doha political office. He was arrested in Pakistan in 2010 and released in October 2018 at the request of the US.
Mullah Abdul Salam Hanafi (deputy head of ministers) remained a key member of the group's negotiation team in Qatar's political office. He was also the deputy education minister of the first Taliban regime between 1996 and 2001. Qari Din Mohammad Hanif (Minister of Economy) was the planning minister of the first Taliban regime and later served on the Taliban Supreme Council.
Qari Fasihuddin (Chief of Army Staff) was a Shura member of the Taliban and led the fight to take control of Afghanistan's northern provinces, including Panjshir. Mullah Yaqoob (defence minister) is the son of Mullah Omar, the Taliban's founding leader and first supreme leader. Yaqoob has been the Taliban's operational chief since 2020.
Amir Muttaqi (Foreign Affairs Minister) was the minister of culture, information, and education during the first Taliban regime and later joined the Doha negotiating team. Khairullah Khairkhwa (Minister of Information) was the interior minister and governor of Herat province during the Taliban's first rule. He was apprehended in 2002 in Pakistan and held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp for nearly 12 years. He also remained a member of the Taliban peace negotiation team. Mawlawi Noor Saqib (Minister of Hajj and Religious Affairs) was the former chief justice of the Taliban before the 9/11 attacks.
Mawlawi Hakim Sharie (Minister of Justice) served as a shadow chief justice of the war-torn country during the Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani governments in Kabul. Noorullah Noori (Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs) was the governor of Balkh and Laghman, as well as the commander of the northern zone during the first Taliban government. Apprehended in 2001 and shifted to Guantanamo Bay, he was released after 13 years. He was also a member of the Taliban's negotiating team in Doha.
Esa Akhund (minister of mines and petroleum) was the minister for water, sanitation, and electricity during the first Taliban regime. Mullah Latif Mansoor (Minister of Water and Energy) served as agriculture minister and lived in Pakistan for several years, where he completed his Islamic studies at the Haqqania seminary in Akora Khattak and was a member of the Taliban's peace negotiation team.
Abdul Baqi Haqqani (Minister for Higher Education) served as the governor of Khost and Paktika provinces during the first Taliban regime. Najibullah Haqqani (Telecommunications Minister) was the Taliban regime's deputy minister for public works before it was overthrown in 2001.
Abdul Haq Wasiq (Chief Directorate of Intelligence) was held in Guantanamo Bay and was released on 31 May 2014 in exchange for the release of a captured US soldier. Mullah Fazil (Deputy Defence Minister) was the Taliban's former deputy defence minister. Detained in Guantanamo Bay, he was released in exchange for a US soldier.
Mullah Abdul Haq Wasiq (Deputy Minister for Internal Affairs in Counter-Narcotics) completed his education in Pakistan. During the Taliban's first regime, he worked as an intelligence assistant officer. The US troops apprehended him in Ghazni in 2001 and transferred him to Guantanamo Bay. After serving 12 years in prison, he was released as part of a prisoner swap. Wasiq also remained on the Taliban's negotiating team.
Sher Abbas Stanikzai (Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs) received military training in India in the 1970s, rose to the rank of deputy minister during the previous Taliban regime, and later served as the chief peace negotiator in Doha.
Mullah Abdul Manan Omari (Minister for Public Works) is the brother-in-law of the Taliban's first supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar Akhundzada. Omari remained one of the Taliban's peace negotiators in Doha. Mullah Hamidullah Akhundzada (Minister for Aviation and Transport) was a former head of the state carrier Ariana Afghan Airlines during the Taliban's first rule.