Afghan Guerrilla Alliance Picks ‘Transition’ Cabinet

The main Pakistan-based Afghan guerrilla alliance Sunday named a “transitional government” it hopes will replace the Soviet-backed government of President Najibullah in Kabul.

Previously named President Ahmad Shah, a U.S.-educated engineer, announced a 14-member provisional Cabinet of two vice presidents and 12 ministers.

Alliance leader Sayed Ahmed Gailani, a moderate, urged rebels to refrain from attacking the withdrawing Soviet forces--a statement that contrasted with the policy of his fiery predecessor, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who had encouraged such attacks.

Offer Is Refused

The Western-backed guerrillas have refused Kabul’s offers to join a coalition government with Najibullah’s ruling People’s Democratic Party, which they maintain is Communist.

Gailani, who leads the Islamic National Revolutionary Front, took over the rotating three-month chairmanship of the seven-party alliance Wednesday from Hekmatyar, who heads the Islamic Party.

Only one minister in the provisional Cabinet is a non-party technocrat, while the others are drawn from the alliance parties, Shah said.

No appeal was made to sympathetic countries to recognize the transitional government, although the alliance has said in the past it will seek diplomatic recognition.

Gailani said that elections will be held among the Afghan rebels and refugees in three to four months to elect an assembly from which the transitional government would seek a vote of confidence.

New Cabinet Approved

The guerrillas made their announcement a day after Najibullah approved without change a new coalition Cabinet named earlier this month under the national reconciliation policy aimed at getting Muslim guerrillas to lay down their arms.

Some Western diplomats in Pakistan have speculated that Najibullah’s government could fall as early as mid-August, when half the Soviet troops are scheduled to be out of Afghanistan.

But Najibullah says the Afghan army can defend the country against rebel forces if there is no outside intervention.

Under a U.N.-mediated accord, the more than 100,000 Soviet troops must leave Afghanistan by February, 1989.