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Afghan president introduces 16 prospective ministers to parliament

The key post of the country’s defence minister is still vacant

ABU-DHABI, March 22. /TASS/. Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai submitted to the parliament on Sunday a list of candidates for 16 posts in the country’s government, the Press TV has reported.

The list includes four women who are the prospective economics, agriculture, trade and industry ministers. The key post of the country’s defence minister is still vacant, the report says.

The president completed drawing up the list of candidates on Saturday. He and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah later paid a visit to the United States. The lower house of Afghanistan’s parliament is yet to vote on the proposed candidates.

The issue of forming Afghanistan’s government of national unity has remained unsolved for already almost half a year. After four months of intense talks, the president presented to the parliament a total of 25 candidates. Out of them, only eight were approved.

The remaining 17 ministries remained without the heads as the proposed candidates failed to meet all the requirements for the post. They had either dual citizenship, problems with the law or very low qualification.

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