AFGHANISTAN - Dec 23 - Warlords Lose Power In New Karzai Cabinet.

Pres Hamid Karzai names a new cabinet, dismissing the defense minister and removing other warlords from top spots in a major reshuffling. The Afghan leader named a relative unknown, Habibullah Qaderi, to head the new Counter narcotics Ministry, which will be responsible for cracking down on the country's multibillion dollar drug trade, which is flooding the world with heroin. Karzai's spokesman Jawed Ludin said: This is a comprehensive step that takes Afghanistan to a new era in which people come to the cabinet because they are capable of serving the Afghan people and because they are educated. This cabinet honors the participation of the people in the election". Defense Minister Mohammad Fahim, a prominent Tajik warlord, was replaced by his deputy, Abdul Rahim Wardak, according to a decree by Karzai that was announced on Afghan state TV. Fahim also is head of the NA, which helped the US drive the Taliban from power in 2001, Wardak is a Pashtun who made a name for himself fighting the Soviet occupation in the 1980s but fled when the country descended into civil war. Also removed from the cabinet were Gul Agha Sherzai, a southern warlord who had been public works minister, and Sayed Hussain Anwari, who controlled a private army in the north and had been agriculture minister. FM Ashraf Ghani, a former World Bank official credited with securing large commitments of foreign aid, was replaced by Anwar ul-Haq Ahadi, governor of the Central Bank and a longtime Karzai ally. Ghani was named chief of Kabul University in a separate presidential decree. FM Abdullah and Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali, both popular in the West, were kept on. Masooda Jalal, the only women to run in the October elections and an outspoken critic of Karzai's reliance on warlords, was named minister of women's affairs. However, at least one regional strongman is joining the government. Ismail Khan, the powerful western warlord whom Karzai removed as governor of Herat earlier this year, was given the position of water and energy minister. The post is not considered a top-tier position, but Khan's selection is likely to prompt criticism from human rights groups. They want Karzai to limit the influence of the warlords, whose large private armies still control large swaths of the countryside, and to develop a more professional political class. Khan was accused of torture while governor of Herat, but he also was credited with bringing stability and relative prosperity to the region. The cabinet selections are seen as indicative of how the government will deal with its myriad problems, including its damaged infrastructure, a stubborn Taliban and Al Qaeda insurgency and a booming opium trade that accounts for three-quarters of the world's supply. The new cabinet will be sworn in Dec 24, Ludin said. The announcement had been delayed several times since Karzai was sworn in Dec 7 to a five-year term as the country's first popularly elected president.