SHOTLIST 1. Various wide interiors of Afghan parliament 2. Newly proposed Cabinet members entering parliament 3. Wide of Afghan Second Vice President Karim Khalili addressing parliament 4. SOUNDBITE: (Dari) Karim Khalili, Afghan Second Vice President: "The government and the parliament of the country should try their best to decide on whatever is for the best of this country." 5. Various of members of parliament 6. Khalili leaving followed by others 7. Exterior of parliament 8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Safia Seddiqi, Afghan member of parliament: "The people whom they came new to the parliament, some of them were really new members or some of them were the new people whom were not part of the rejected list of the Cabinet before, but you know the important thing is that still I think there is a doubt for the full screening of those people whom they came today to the parliament. I don''t think if they can still win from the parliament." 9. SOUNDBITE: (Dari) Ahmad Bahzad, Afghan member of parliament: "The elements who have been introduced I think they would not be capable elements and it is very difficult for them to get a vote of confidence from the parliament." 10. Exterior of parliament STORYLINE: Afghan President Hamid Karzai presented a second slate of nominees to fill his Cabinet on Saturday after parliament rejected 70 percent of his first picks. Last week''s rejection by lawmakers of 17 of 24 nominees was a setback to Karzai''s efforts to get his second term in office into full operation so he can focus on badly needed reforms in a country at war for more than eight years. The US and other donor nations have been pressing Karzai to get his administration assembled ahead of an international conference on Afghanistan to be held January 28 in London. Second Vice President Karim Khalili announced 16 ministerial candidates, including 15 to replace those rejected the first time plus Karzai''s pick to head the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zalmay Rasoul, a longtime national security adviser. That post was not part of his first submission. He did not submit names to replace Ishmail Khan, an infamous warlord who currently is the minister of water and energy, who had been rejected in the first vote. Khalili also did not submit a name for telecommunications. He said nominees for those portfolios would be announced soon. "The government and the parliament of the country should try their best to decide on whatever is for the best of this country," Khalili said as he read the names to parliament. Some political analysts had expected Karzai to resubmit the names of rejected candidates for different positions but all the nominees announced on Saturday had not been on the first list. One member of parliament, Ahmad Bahzad, expressed reservations about Karzai''s second slate of nominees. "The elements who have been introduced I think they would not be capable elements and it is very difficult for them to get a vote of confidence from the parliament," Bahzad said. Karzai''s credibility both at home and abroad was shaken by the fraud-plagued presidential elections in August. In the first vote on the Cabinet nominees, lawmakers rejected nominees viewed as Karzai''s political cronies, those believed to be under the influence of warlords and others deemed unqualified. Parliament did approve his retention of incumbents in the key portfolios of defence, interior, finance and agriculture in the January 2 vote. All these were favoured by the US and other nations supplying troops and aid to Afghanistan. The US and other Western nations hope that a stronger government will help keep disenchanted Afghans from siding with Taliban insurgents. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/e0258b7a338da2ebff4befc03f234af9 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

• published: 24 Jul 2015
• views: 0