Taliban join online jokes over Afghanistan's government failure to name a new cabinet
Leaders have missed several promised deadlines to announce the make-up of its cabinet
Heather Saul
Tuesday 06 January 2015
Taliban insurgents have joined in on a deluge of online jokes at the expense of Afghanistan’s government over its failure to name a new cabinet after more than three months in office.
After 100 days in office, President Ashraf Ghani and his former election rival Abdullah Abdullah have missed several promised deadlines to announce the make-up of its cabinet.
Their failure to agree on a cabinet has sparked jokes on social media. One user manipulated a photo to show Ghani and Abdullah as old men with long white beards, with the tag "#Afghanistan ... in 2050: 'In coming days we will announce our cabinet'."
On Tuesday, the Taliban, whose media arm usually focuses on killing foreign and Afghan security forces, joined in, with Reuters quoting spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid as tweeting: "Perhaps the cabinet is frozen!"
The tweet linked to an article written under Mujahid's byline and saying Ghani and Abdullah "have no convincing excuse for the failure to name a cabinet - they might as well blame the freezing weather in Kabul".
The continuous jokes masks growing worries about the stability of President Ghani's unity government at a time when Afghanistan faces grave challenges, after the withdrawal of most foreign forces and with the Taliban having stepped up attacks.
Neither the presidential palace nor Abdullah's office was available for comment about the cabinet-related jokes.
Additional reporting by Reuters
