KABUL: In a major development in Afghanistan, Mawlawi Abdul Kabir was appointed as the new caretaker prime minister and interim head of the cabinet on Wednesday.
The supreme leader of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Haibitullah Akhund, has made the appointment owing to the ill health of Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, the acting head of the Taliban government and the caretaker premier.
The Express Tribune reported that during the Eid holidays, the former prime minister had suffered a heart attack after visiting Kandahar. However, 45 days have passed since he had not recovered and resumed office.
The Taliban government’s official spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed that the acting premier was ill and wanted to rest.
The decision showed that the new acting premier has good relations with Sirajuddin Haqqani, and the decision was made on his request because the Haqqani network holds fewer positions in the cabinet in comparison to the Kandahari Taliban.
The choice would also offer the Haqqanis a weighted advantage over other groups, but Mullah Habitullah made it after consulting Taliban’s top ranks.
Mullah Hassan Akhund and Mawlawi Kabir were senior Taliban leaders who had previously served as deputies to the prime ministers of the late Mullah Rabbani (during the previous Taliban rule, which lasted from 1996 to 2001) and members of the Supreme Council.
Mawlawi Abdul Kabir, the current Islamic Emirate premier, also served as acting Taliban prime minister for six months in 2001.
Kabir hails from the eastern Paktika province of Afghanistan and is a member of the Zadran tribe. According to UN reports, Kabir was born between 1958 and 1963 and is aged between 58 to 63.
Kabir served as the governor of Nangarhar province between 1996-2001 and headed the eastern zone.
After the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, initially, he was appointed deputy PM alongside Abdul Kabir and Abdul Salam Hanafi.
He is also said to have participated in the Doha Agreement, and Kabir had also been part of the committee assigned to talk directly with Zalmay Khalilzad, a then-US peace envoy.
