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KABUL: Tempers are running high among public representatives and political analysts after ex-spymaster Amrullah Saleh accompanied the incumbent president Ashraf Ghani to attend Munich conference earlier this week.
Some members of Parliament called his presence in Munich along with the president ‘a political maneuvering’ against his electoral rivals, exhibiting a pseudo-ethnic equilibrium in power sharing and utilizing Saleh’s intelligence acumen.
Lawmaker Mohammad Aref Rahmani argues no law states that running mate of an election candidate could travel and attend official trips abroad and inside the country. He hinted at two underlying reasons to have justified this trip of Saleh “but political not legal”. “One reason is that Saleh is a security and intelligence expert and second is that president Ghani’s actions have an ethnic attachment to them and he seeks to alleviate concerns regarding bias.”
Saleh’s presence in president’s and security council’s meetings drew ire previously too. He was present in the president’s televised announcement of release of the notorious Anas Haqqani and several other instances. In defense, the presidential palace has argued that Saleh being a prominent politician can attend those crucial meetings.
University lecturer, Wadir Safi, believes that the president should not be accompanied by him running mate and that if it happens, the president should explain the reason. “The president has no right to take any person with him in his official overseas trips,” he said.
