First Karzai cabinet
| First Karzai cabinet | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Date formed | 7 December 2004 |
| Date dissolved | 19 November 2009 |
| People and organisations | |
| Head of state | Hamid Karzai |
| Head of government | Hamid Karzai |
| No. of ministers | 27 |
| Total no. of ministers | 27 |
| History | |
| Predecessor | Afghan Transitional Administration |
| Successor | Second Karzai cabinet |
The First Karzai cabinet lead the administration of Afghanistan between 2004, the year Hamid Karzai won the first Afghan presidential election and 2009 when the second presidential election took place. In 2006 there was a major cabinet reshuffle. The first Karzai cabinet followed the Afghan Transitional Administration which was put in place by the 2002 loya jirga. Karzai announced the names of the cabinet on 23 December 2004. The cabinet was sworn in on 24 December 2002 and held its first cabinet meeting on 27 December. This cabinet consisted of 27 ministers, including two women.
While composing the transitional administration, Karzai had to balance between different powerful groups who all wanted to be represented in the government. After Karzai was chosen by the people he was able to form a more independent government. Warlords like Gul Agha Sherzai, Yunus Qanuni and Sayed Hussain Anwari didn't return to the cabinet and were replaced by technocrats with work experience relevant to their assigned portfolios. However, prominent warlord Ismail Khan, who had been represented in earlier cabinets by his son Mir Wais Saddiq was named Water and Energy Minister
Defense Minister Muhammad Fahim was replaced by his deputy Abdur Rahim Wardak, a Pashtun leader who fought the Soviet occupation during the 1980s. The key post of finance minister will also be changed hands. Current Central Bank Governor Anwar ul-Haq Ahadi will replace current Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani, who refused to take a second term, finding the Karzai government corrupt. Ghani alienated many of his colleagues, but was popular by western allies of Afghanistan and became chief of Kabul University. Other ministers who were popular by western allies, Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali, kept their posts in the new Cabinet. Karzai chose Massouda Jalal, his only female opponent in the 9 October presidential election and an outspoken critic of Karzai's reliance on warlords, to serve as minister of women's affairs. He also created a new Counternarcotics Ministry to confront Afghanistan's burgeoning opium industry and appointed the relatively unknown Habibullah Qadari to its helm.
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