Afghanistan Times
Related Articles
AT News
KABUL: A prominent Mujahideen Amanullah Gozar has defended Dr. Abdullah’s haggling over the use of his executive authority to appoint high-ranking government officials, after the chief executive disparaged president Ghani’s “patronage appointments”.
Against the backdrop of the government’s alleged unilateralism, it is speculated that Dr. Abdullah is planning to appoint 5 new ministers and 8 governors. Sources close to Abdullah revealed that the new appointments will be implemented in the north zone and the ministries under his allotment.
A member of the Parliament, Gozar said in his Facebook account that the authority to appoint ministers and governors is not a prize rather it is his right and “We will make sure it will not create any disturbance to the country’s status quo.
“In these high-stakes circumstances with the election in limbo and the tenure of the government at an end, such adventurous and incendiary appointments being done at the whim of the president don’t seem legally, morally and conventionally necessary,” he said, “But if the palace continues with this obscenity of provocative appointments, it is utterly logic and comprehensible for Abdullah Abdullah to make re-assignments and appointments.”
President Ghani’s administration has come under criticism for systematic favoritism in high-ranking appointments to Ghani’s own ethnic group. Appointments in diplomatic missions appear to favor those close to the president under the aegis of reforms and given the appearance of ethnic diversity. The accusation had been leveled by a Chief Executive Abdullah’s aide Omid Meisam, who alleged ‘deliberate ethnic favoritism’ in the president’s awarding of sensitive jobs.
