KABUL (PAN): After a long wait, the Wolesi Jirga, lower house parliament, Saturday received a list of 23 new cabinet picks for a vote of confidence. The new cabinet members include 12 sitting ministers and 11 new faces, some of them technocrats. Ministers for foreign affairs, disabled and reconstruction (urban development) were not introduced to lawmakers today. The house will initiate a regular debate on the nominations tomorrow, Speaker Yunus Qanuni said. Karzai's picks are: Defence Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak; Interior Minister Hanif Atmar; Minister of Finance Omar Zakhilwal; Minister of Public Health Dr. Mohammad Amin Fatimie; Minister of Agriculture Muhammad Asif Rahimi; Minister of Justice Mohammad Sarwar Danish; Minister of Education Ghulam Farooq Wardak; Minister of Women's Affairs Hosn Bano Ghazanfar; Minister of Communications Amirzai Sangin; Minister of Counter-narcotics Gen. Khodaidad; Minister of Transport and Aviation Dr. Muhammadullah Batas; Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development Wais Barmak; Minister of Mines Waheedullah Shahrani; Minister of Information and Culture Syed Makhdoom Raheen; Minister of Water and Energy Ismail Khan; Minister of Hajj and Auqaf Inayatullah Baleegh Darshad; Minister of Higher Education Obaidullah Obaid; Minister of Public Welfare Eng. Mirza Hussein Abdullahai; Minister of Trade and Industry Ghulam Mohammad Yailaqi; Minister of Economy Dr. Anwarul Haq Ahadi Minister of Refugee Affairs Inayatullah Nazari; Labour & Manpower Minister Ismail Munshi; and Minister of Frontiers & Tribal Affairs Syed Hamid Gilani. Ex-finance minister Anwarul Haq Ahadi, who resigned to contest the presidential ballot, has been named as economy minister. Ambassador to India Syed Makhdoom Raheen is the new minister of information and culture, replacing Abdul Karim Khurram. Some ministries have been bifurcated, apparently in a bid to create more ministerial slots, a move that drew opposition from parliamentarians. Under Article 90 of the Constitution, they argued, the merger, bifurcation and abolition of ministries was Wolesi Jirga's discretion. As a result of the contention, the newly-nominated minister for martyr and disabled affairs was not introduced to the house. In his inauguration speech, Karzai had vowed to name a clean cabinet, crack down on graft and end the culture of impunity. Under mounting pressure from the West to clamp down on endemic corruption, the president handed over the list to the legislative body for approval. Karzai, re-elected in the fraud-marred August election, took a month choosing his cabinet picks since he took office for a second term on November 19. With corruption allegations swirling around them, two ministers have been replaced. Both Minister of Mines Muhammad Ibrahim Adel and Haj and Auqaf Minister Sediq Chakari have denied reports of allegations levelled against them. mud