As a compromise candidate, Sharq was selected by President Mohammad Najibullah to be the new Chairman of the Council of Ministers, replacing Sultan Ali Keshtmand.
[6] Sharq's association with the Parcham communist faction, dating back to the Daoud government, made the "non-PDPA" appellation meaningless.
Likewise, on June 7, when Sharq announced his cabinet, consisting of 11 new members and 10 former ones, the non-party credentials of the "new" ministers were undermined by the fact that most had served the regime government previously in other capacities.
This post remained vacant for nearly two months, but in August it was finally given to Army Chief of Staff General Shahnawaz Tanai of the Khalq communist faction.
Thus, almost two years after he announced the national reconciliation policy in January 1987, Najibullah was unable to attract a single major figure of the resistance or prominent Afghan refugee to join the government.