One More Minister Dismisses as President Instructs Cabinet to Stay

Afghan Parliament dismissed one more cabinet minister on Tuesday, bringing the total number of dismissed ministers to seven over the last four days.

Parliament removed Abdul Razeq Wahidi, the communication, information and technology minister while Ali Ahmad Osmani, minister of energy and water, Asadullah Zameer, minister of agriculture, irrigation and livestock and Salamat Azimi, minister of counter narcotics were survived by confidence votes.

“The communication minister was not approved by the parliament as he could only receive 49 votes of confidence. We are asking the President to introduce a new individual for the position to get confidence votes,” Deputy Lower House Speaker Zaher Qadir concluded.

Last night in an extra-ordinary cabinet meeting, the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani instructed dismissed ministers to remain in their jobs until a verdict is not issued by the Supreme Court about interpellation of cabinet ministers by parliament.

The decision was made by the government after the parliament ignored a plea from the government leadership to halt votes for a period of two weeks and dismissed five ministers including the foreign affairs minister who is the leader of a large political party in Afghanistan citing poor performance and budgetary issues.

The parliament is expected to hold votes on four more ministers on Wednesday.

By: Hesamuddin Hesam