08:20 06/09/2021
After two decades of near-constant warfare and destruction, the Taliban are now grappling with the need to figure out how to govern the underdeveloped and impoverished nation they have just retaken. But some insight into predictions of how events might play out can be gleaned by taking a closer look at the group's leadership and organizational structure as well as the parallel shadow government they created to prepare for future challenges.
Re-establishing the post-11/XNUMX Taliban leadership council
The Taliban's rise to power in recent weeks was as swift as their fall from the intervention of international coalition forces in 2001. The US-led intervention destroyed the Taliban's organizational command and dislocated their leadership. .
Taliban fighters mingled with the population or moved in with refugees in neighboring Pakistan. According to a book written by a senior member of the Taliban, Abdul Hai Mutmain, in 2016, it was not until May 2002 that their supreme leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, was able to gather several top aides and establish a leadership council to directed resistance against the United States and its allies.
The members of that council were Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Usmani, Mullah Abdul Lateef Mansur, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansur, Mullah Dadullah Khund, Mullah Jalaluddin Haqqani, Mullah Abdul Kabeer, Mullah Hamdullah Nani, Mullah Muhamman Hhamham Hass Ameer Khan Mutaqi.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and Mullah Obaidullah Akhund were appointed his first and second emirs (high title). The governing council serves rather as a government cabinet that directs all group affairs subject to the approval of the supreme leader.
In February 2007 Obaidullah Akhund was arrested by Pakistani intelligence agencies and succeeded by Akhtar Muhammad Mansur as Mullah Baradar's deputy. Pakistani intelligence arrested Baradar three years later, and Mansur succeeded him as supreme vice president and head of the ruling council.
After the Taliban announced the death of Mullah Omar in 2015, Mansur became the supreme leader of the Taliban and appointed two deputies - Shaikh Hibatullah Akhundzada, the current emir of the Taliban, and Mullah Sirajuddin Haqqani - the head of the Haqqani network.
After Mansur was killed by a US drone strike in May 2016 in Pakistan, Shaikh Akhundzada succeeded him and appointed Mullah Yaqoob Omari, the son of its founding emir, Mullah Umar – to serve as Haqqani's deputy.
When Baradar was released from a Pakistani prison in 2018, Akhundzada made him a third deputy in charge of political affairs. This leadership structure remains in place, with Shaikh Hibatullah Akhundzada serving as supreme leader, assisted by three deputies – Mulawi Yaqoob Umari, Shaikh Sirajuddin Haqqani and Mulawi Abdul Ghani Baradar.
The Taliban bureaucracy
Muhammad Ahsas, a Taliban official familiar with the matter, told VOA that the Taliban have divided Afghanistan's 34 provinces into two administrative branches, the south and southeast. The south includes 14 provinces and falls under the authority of Umar.
The southeast includes the remaining 20 provinces and is administered by the Haqqani. Each province is divided into eight zones, which in turn are divided into districts similar to those that already exist. Mutmain writes in his book that the Taliban appointed provincial governors in 2005.
The Taliban-appointed governor of Kunar, Haji Usman Turabi, announced at a large public rally last month that these commissions were now responsible for running the province. Citizens were told to contact the relevant commission to request any services they may need.
According to Mutmain, the first three Taliban commissions were military, economic and cultural, established in 2004. Afghan scholar Fazelminallah Qazizai says that the largest and most significant Taliban commission is the military commission. The Taliban's vice president, Mullah Yaqoob Umari, heads that commission with three deputies - Maulawi Sadar Ibrahim, Maulawi Abul Kayum Zakir and Qari Fasihuddin. All three are senior military commanders. Fasihuddin is the senior commander for the nine northern provinces and is of Tajik ethnicity.
Qazizai says the next most important commission is the economic one, which, like the military commission, deals with drug smuggling, an important source of income for the Taliban. The discovery commission is smaller, but also considered important. This commission deals with drone technology and other modern weaponry.
According to Mr. Ahsas, the media and culture commission lacks the large budget of the intelligence commission or the large organizational structure of the military commission, but is also considered vital.
The political commission, meanwhile, is currently the most important, due to its daily interaction with the international media. The commission operates under the leadership of Baradar and has several senior leaders including Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, Suhail Shaheen and Shaikh Shahabuddin Dalawar./VOA
Source of information @TvKlan: Read more at: www.botasot.al
