On Tuesday, while addressing a press conference for the announcement of the new interim government, Taliban’s Information Minister Zabiullah Mujahid has categorically repudiated decades-long allegations of Pakistan’s involvement in Afghanistan’s affairs. “We will not allow anyone to interfere in our country’s affairs,” said Zabihullah Mujahid. “We are working with complete freedom. We fought against different countries who were occupying our country to the best of our ability,” he added. Taliban declare the new interim government Taliban on Tuesday have finally announced their interim government weeks after they acceded to power. Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, a senior minister during the Taliban’s reign in the 1990s, was appointed acting prime minister, a spokesman said at a press conference in Kabul. Earlier, Taliban had promised an inclusive government in the war-torn country but now all the important top positions have been doled out to key leaders from the movement and the Haqqani network. Interestingly not a single woman has been selected for the top position. “We will try to take people from other parts of the country,” spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said, adding that it is an interim government. Shortly after the new team was revealed, Hibatullah Akhundzada, the secretive supreme leader of the Taliban, released a statement saying that the new government would “work hard towards upholding Islamic rules and sharia law”. Mullah Yaqoob, the son of the Taliban founder and late supreme leader Mullah Omar, is named as Defence Minister, while the position of the interior minister has been given to Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the Haqqani network. Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar, who oversaw the signing of the US withdrawal agreement, will be a deputy to Hassan Akhund. However, Michael Kugelman, a South Asia expert at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholar, said that “It’s not at all-inclusive, and that’s no surprise whatsoever.” “The Taliban had never indicated that any of its cabinet ministers would include anyone other than themselves,” he added.