When Emir Abdur Rahman Khan came to power in Kabul in 1880, the central administration consisted of only ten clerks overseen by a single official.

[9][10] Beginning on 18 March 1992 when President Mohammed Najibullah announced that he would resign as soon as a transitional authority was formed and especially since 10 April when a UN-backed plan of a pre-transition council composed of impartial personalities was presented,[408] the government of the Republic of Afghanistan began to deteriorate quickly as government members were beginning to defect to the different mujahedin parties, offering assistance to each of the parties entering Kabul.

Most Pashtun officials and police officers in the Ministry of Interior Affairs around Mohammad Aslam Watanjar, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs[408] around Raz Mohammad Paktin and other members from the Khalq faction sought to build alliances with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, commander of the Hizb-e Islami, while Tajik officers in the military and government, being mostly Parchamites, were defecting to Ahmad Shah Massoud, commander of the Jamiat-e Islami, and Turkmen and Uzbek officials were siding with Abdul Rashid Dostum, formerly aligned with the government but recently defected himself forming the Junbish-i Milli.

He tried to flee the country, but was intercepted by the dissident army unit of Dostum at the Kabul International Airport, and his whereabouts remained unclear.

[411][412] But amid reports of escalating fighting and troop defections in and around Kabul, the new council's control of the capital appeared tenuous and divided.

According to some sources, the actual power in the government was held by four Tajik ex-PDPA generals allied with Massoud who were backed by army leaders in the capital and northern Afghanistan.

Among those four were Deputy Defense Minister Mohammad Nabi Azimi,[413] the commander of the Kabul Garrison Baba Jan Zahid and Chief of Staff of the army Muhammad Asif Delawar.

[412][414] Foreign Minister Abdul Wakil, himself being a dissident,[412][410] stated that the insurgents were open to transferring power to a UN-sponsored interim government if one could be established.

The United Nations Security Council held an emergency session to address the Afghan crisis, and UN envoy Benon Sevan extended his stay in Kabul for further discussions.

Additionally, Wakil reported that Ghulam Faruq Yaqubi, the head of the KHAD, had committed suicide and was replaced by Osman Sultani.

The transitional government was to remain in power for four months after which a grand assembly of tribal elders would arrange and schedule national elections.

On this day, members of the old government, including the former Prime Minister Fazal Haq Khaliqyar, the leaders of the old Senate and House of Representatives, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Abdul Karim Shahdan,[411] handed power to Mojaddedi in a formal ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

[463][464] But when a first meeting of this Resolution and Settlement Council failed to convene on 12 December, Rabbani announced that he would stay interim president until a successor was chosen.

[464] On 30 December, the Council once again met in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to appoint an interim president, but most mujahideen groups boycotted the meeting because of bribery allegations.

[467][497] On 8 September, Hekmatyar called on Rabbani and the cabinet to resign to allow for the establishment of a "neutral interim government" to be chosen in a free general election, but was denied.

[501] Rabbani refused to step down at the end of his term on 28 June 1994[500] and then again half a year later on 28 December 1994, and on 1 January 1995, United Nations peace envoy Mahmoud Mestiri returned to Kabul.

[503] On that date though, the scheduled transfer of power was disrupted by demands from Rabbani for assurances that the new government includes the newly emerging Taliban.

[538][539] The next day, the government fled north of Kabul to Charikar and Jabal Saraj[540] at the gateway to the Panjshir Valley, considering the inevitable conquer of the city by the guerilla forces.

When Kabul fell to the Northern Alliance on 13 November 2001 and the Taliban government was overthrown a few weeks later in Kandahar, approximately two dozen leading Afghans met in Germany at the Bonn Conference to choose a leadership and set in place a timeline for the adoption of a new constitution for a new Afghan government, and the timeline for choosing an executive and legislature by democratic election.

[617] On 6 December 2001, it was decided that Pashtun leader Hamid Karzai will formally take control of the government from Burhanuddin Rabbani who was Afghan president from 1992 to 1996, when the Taliban overthrew him.

[655][656] After winning a second term, President Hamid Karzai nominated 23 ministers in December 2009 to be part of his new administration but only 7 were approved by the National Assembly.

In June 2010, after the resignation of Interior Minister Hanif Atmar, President Karzai submitted 7 names for a third round of confirmation in the National Assembly.