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KABUL: The Afghan parliament on Saturday approved 10 cabinet picks, including the security agencies in the wake of violence across the country.
Mohammad Haneef Atmar approved as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdul Hadi Argahndiwal as Finance Minister, Assadullah Khalid as Minister of Defense, Masoud Andarabi as Minister of Interior, Fazel Ahmad Manawi as Minister of Justice, Masouma Khawari as Minister of Telecommunication and Information Technology, Abas Basir as Minister of Higher Education, Bashir Ahmad Tayanj as Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Mohammad Qasem Halimi as Minister of Hajj and Religious Affairs and Nesar Ahmad Ghoriani as Minister of Commerce and Industries. They received the majority vote of confidence from Wolesi Jirga (Lower House) of Parliament and designated as Ministers for the aforementioned ministries.
Mohammad Haneef Atmar received 197 votes of confidence, Abdul Hadi Arghandiwal 206 votes, Assadullah Khalid 206 votes, Masoud Andarabi 214 votes, Fazel Ahmad Manawi 220 votes, Masouma Khawari 154 votes, Abass Basir 197 votes, Bashir Ahmad Tayanj 190 votes, Mohammad Qasem Halimi 148 votes and Nesar Ahmad Ghoriani as Minister of Commerce and Industries succeeded to receive 213 votes.
Each Minister needed 124 votes of confidence out of 246 lawmakers present.
Speaker of the Wolesie Jirga Mir Rahman Rahmani congratulated the winning ministers, wishing them success in their future endorsement.
He said that the lawmakers have voted the minister nominees in a transparent process with full unity.
Director of Information and Public Relation of State Ministry for Parliamentary Affairs Zikerullah Farzayi said that there are 23 ministerial nominees in total, in which ten of them received a vote of confidence.
The rest 13 nominees will be introduced to parliament in the future, he added.
It is worth mentioning that a number of ministries were running by acting ministers for several years.
