Abdul Rahim Karimi was Minister of Justice of Afghanistan between December 2001 and October 2004 in the Afghan Interim Authority and the

Afghan Transitional Administration Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity ** Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...

. He was replaced by

Sarwar Danish Muhammad Sarwar Danish ( prs, ; born 1961) is an Afghan politician who was the second vice president of Afghanistan, from 2014 to 2021. He was previously the acting minister of justice from 2004 to 2010 and acting minister of higher education f ...

when Karzai reshuffled his cabinet when he was elected president in 2004. Karimi, an ethnic Uzbek who was aligned with the

Northern Alliance The Northern Alliance, officially known as the United Islamic National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan ( prs, جبهه متحد اسلامی ملی برای نجات افغانستان ''Jabha-yi Muttahid-i Islāmi-yi Millī barāyi Nijāt ...

, was installed as minister by the Bonn Conference, following the defeat of the

Taliban government The government of Afghanistan, officially called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is the central government of Afghanistan, a unitary state. Under the leadership of the Taliban, the government is a theocracy and an emirate with political powe ...

Warlords

As a minister with a background United Islamic Front he is reported to have said that all Afghan refugees were welcome to return after the Taliban-era, except for communists, indicating that he still saw the world through the lens of the Cold War. He also took a stance against the Islamic warlords however. In November 2002 he said that government laws could not be enforced in parts of the country were warlords were still in power. A judge could not make fair decisions in areas ruled by Mujahideen commanders, and as a consequence, in much of Afghanistan, the rule of the gun continues to prevailed over the rule of law.

Sharia

Islamists wanted that the legal system of Afghanistan would be drawn solely from Sharia law. But Karimi intended for the new legal code to be based no more than 20 percent on Islamic jurisprudence. He claimed that the Islam of his government is different from the Islam of the Taliban, but defended the fact that Sharia law remained in place: "people would not understand if we would get rid of it" completely. Under his leadership, Afghanistan signed up as a member of the

International Criminal Court The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals f ...

. He was also responsible for the new electoral law, providing for presidential and parliamentary

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative ...

.{{Cite news, url=https://www.rferl.org/a/1340577.html, title=AFGHANISTAN'S NEW ELECTION LAW PAVES WAY FOR SEPTEMBER POLLS, last=Esfandiari, first=Golnaz, work=RFE/RL, access-date=2017-05-14

References

Government ministers of Afghanistan