Afghanistan will not be a democracy under the Taliban rule and the country will be governed by the Sharia, or Islamic law, one of the senior leaders of the militant group, Waheedullah Hashimi, told Reuters on Wednesday.
In an interview to the news agency, Hashimi said that Afghanistan may be governed by a ruling council headed by Taliban supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada.
“We will have ministers...all the ministers would be appointed by this council,” Hashimi said. “...There would be no democratic system at all because it does not have any base in our country.”
Hashimi’s comments came even as the Taliban has not made any official announcement on the structure of their government in Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, members of the group met former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul amid efforts to establish a government. The previous government’s main peace envoy Abdullah Abdullah was also present in the meeting, according to Al Jazeera. However, no details emerged from the talks.
Hashimi, in the interview, said that he would be joining a meeting of the Taliban leadership later this week to discuss matters of governance.
He added that that the Taliban would reach out to former pilots and soldiers of the Afghan armed forces to join them. He said that the Taliban needed pilots as they had seized helicopters and other aircrafts during their takeover of the country. However, the group does not have trained pilots, Hashimi told Reuters.
“We have contact with many pilots,” the Taliban leader said. “And we have asked them to come and join...join their brothers, their government.”
Meanwhile, former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled the country on Sunday as the Taliban approached Kabul, on Wednesday said that he was “in talks” to return home, AFP reported.
Earlier on Wednesday, the United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry had confirmed that Ghani was in their country and they had accepted the former president and his family on humanitarian grounds.
In a video message posted on his Facebook page, Ghani said he supported the talks held on Wednesday between Taliban and Karzai. “I want the success of this process,” Ghani said.
He also denied allegations that he had transferred large sums of money out of the country before fleeing to the UAE.
“Do not believe whoever tells you that your president sold you out and fled for his own advantage and to save his own life,” he said, according to AFP. “I was expelled from Afghanistan in such a way that I didn’t even get the chance to take my slippers off my feet and pull on my boots.”
US troops will stay to evacuate Americans: Joe Biden
United States President Joe Biden on Wednsday said that the country’s troops would stay in Afghanistan until every American is evacuated, AP reported. He said the troops would stay even beyond the August 31 deadline for this purpose, if needed.
“Americans should understand that we’re going to try to get it [evacuation] done before August 31,” Biden said in an interview. “And if there’s American citizens left, we’re going to stay to get them all out.”
Nearly 15,000 Americans remain in Afghanistan after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan on Sunday, entering the presidential palace in the capital Kabul and ending an insurgent offensive that ripped through the country in 10 days.
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