Afghanistan may be ruled by a council

KABUL • Afghanistan may be governed by a ruling council, while the Islamist militant movement's supreme leader, Mr Haibatullah Akhundzada, would likely remain in overall charge, a senior member of the group told Reuters.

The Taleban would also reach out to former pilots and soldiers from the Afghan armed forces to join its ranks, Mr Waheedullah Hashimi, a senior Taleban commander, added in an interview.

How successful that recruitment is remains to be seen.

Thousands of soldiers have been killed by Taleban insurgents over the past 20 years, and recently, the group targeted United States-trained Afghan pilots because of their pivotal role.

The power structure that Mr Hashimi outlined would bear similarities to how Afghanistan was run the last time the Taleban was in power from 1996 to 2001.

Then, supreme leader Mullah Omar remained in the shadows and left the day-to-day running of the country to a council.

Mr Akhundzada would likely play a role above the head of the council, who would be akin to the country's president, said Mr Hashimi.

"Maybe his deputy will play the role of 'president'," Mr Hashimi said, speaking in English.

The Taleban's supreme leader has three deputies: Mr Mawlavi Yaqoob, son of Mullah Omar; Mr Sirajuddin Haqqani, leader of the powerful militant Haqqani network; and Mr Abdul Ghani Baradar, who heads the Taleban's political office in Doha and is one of the founding members of the group.

Meanwhile, many issues regarding how the Taleban would run the country have yet to be finalised, Mr Hashimi explained, but Afghanis-tan would not be a democracy.

"There will be no democratic system at all because it does not have any base in our country," he said. "We will not discuss what type of political system should we apply in Afghanistan because it is clear. It is syariah law, and that is it."

On recruiting soldiers and pilots who fought for the ousted Afghan government, he said the Taleban planned to set up a new national force that would include its own members as well as government soldiers willing to join it.

"Most of them have got training in Turkey and Germany and England. So, we will talk to them to get back to their positions," he said. "Of course, we will have some changes, to have some reforms in the army, but still we need them and will call them to join us."

Mr Hashimi said the Taleban especially needed pilots because it had none, while the group had seized helicopters and other aircraft in various Afghan airfields.

He said the Taleban expected neighbouring countries to return aircraft that had landed in their territory - an apparent reference to the 22 military planes, 24 helicopters and hundreds of Afghan soldiers who fled to Uzbekistan at the weekend.

REUTERS, BLOOMBERG