960429

Hemkatyar

to assume

premiership soon

KABUL: Afghan Hezb-i-Islami faction chief Gulbuddin Hekmatyar will arrive in Kabul soon to assume the office of prime minister, a senior government official said on Wednesday.

About a hundred Hezb-i-Islami security troops have already been given control of a building where Hekmatyar will set up his office in the Afghan capital, the official said, preferring anonymity.

He said a joint commission of Hezb-i-Islami and Jamiat-i-Islami party of President Burhanuddin Rabbani is expected to finalise "very soon" distribution of ministries between the two sides in the new administration.

Hekmatyar will reach Kabul after the allotment of posts is completed by the commission, in implementation of the political and military cooperation accord signed by the two sides near Kabul on Friday, he said.

The Hezb-i-Islami is "most likely" to get the key portfolios of defence and finance in addition to the prime ministership, while the Jamiat-i-Islami will retain the presidency, he said.

Meanwhile, the official said Rabbani had sent a delegation to northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif for talks with Abdul Rashid Dostam on his offer to the Uzbek leader to participate in the planned interim government.

The Hezb-i-Islami's alliance with Rabbani has put it at odds with three other factions which have been its partners in an opposition alliance, called Supreme Coordination Council (SCC).

The three are Dostam's Junbish-i-Milli, Jabha Nijat-i-Milli of former president Sibghatullah Mojaddedi and Shia Hezb-i-Wahdat.

Reliable Afghan sources in Pakistan said the Taliban Islamic Militia, which had been beseiging Kabul, has invited Mojaddedi and three other factional leaders for talks on forming an anti-Rabbani front.

The other invitees to Kandahar, the Taliban base in southern Afghanistan, are Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi of Harkat Iquilab-i-Islami, Younus Khales of Hezb-i-Islami (Khales group) and Sayed Ahmad Gilani of Mahaz-i-Milli.-APP