KABUL (PAN): The Wolesi Jirga (Lower House of Parliament) Tuesday rose for its winter recess, with the speaker saying that lawmakers would convene again the day remaining cabinet nominees were introduced to them for approval. While announcing the break, Muhammad Yunus Qanuni said 18 ministers-designate would likely appear before the lower house for a vote of confidence on Saturday (January 9). The house was adjourned till that time, Qanuni said, a day after President Hamid Karzai directed the Wolesi Jirga to suspend its winter holiday until the completion of vetting and voting on his new cabinet picks. Qanuni added the foreign minister-designate would also be introduced to legislators on Saturday. The parliament was originally scheduled to adjourn for its winter recess on December 16, 2009 but the break was postponed to okay the cabinet. In a decree issued on Monday, the president said new cabinet nominees would be introduced to the house for a vote of confidence in several days. He asked the Wolesi Jirga to stay in session until the process was finalised. Eleven of the 24 cabinet picks introduced by Karzai were new faces. Only seven of them were approved by parliamentarians. Among those rejected were men from different groups, parties and jihadi organisations led by strongmen like Muhammad Mohaqiq, Rashid Dostum, Pir Sayed Ahmad Gilani and Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf. Some lawmakers wanted to rise for the annual recess. A public representative from southern Ghazni province, Daud Sultanzoy, said they were ready to vet and vote on the nominees, only if presented together before the house. Otherwise, he explained, they would not surrender their winter break. But Fazlullah Mujaddedi, parliamentarian from central Logar province, differed with Sultanzoy. He believed the session should go on till the completion of the voting, which is widely seen as reflective of parliament's increasing assertion of its constitutional authority. ss/mud