'Ashraf Ghani ran Afghan State like a private fiefdom for past 7 years'

Dr Omar Zakhilwal said Ashraf Ghani tried to make his face alone that of the State & the Republic.

KABUL (Web Desk) – Former Afghan ambassador to Pakistan Dr Omar Zakhilwal on Friday slammed Afghan President and said that Ashraf Ghani ran the Afghan State like a private fiefdom over the past 7 years.

The former Afghan finance minister in series of tweets said that Afghanistan once again is at a cross road of a struggle between state survival and a deeper crisis.

He said that over the past 7 years Dr Ashraf Ghani ran the Afghan State like a private fiefdom and spent enormous government resources, both on mainstream and social media, to elevate his image to the “Greatest Leader” Afghanistan ever had in addition to being “the second most intellectual person of the world”.

“He tried to make his face alone that of the State & the Republic. With untrue or exaggerated narratives, gross mismanagement, misuse of power, excessive repeated violation of the constitution, nepotism, instilling political and national divisiveness, deliberate politicization & demoralization of state institutions, political conspiracies, sabotaging of successive opportunities for peace and extension of his rule by another 5-years by fraudulent means, he instead reduced the State & the Republic to his face,” Zakhilwal wrote.

The ex-ambassador said, “As a result, the Afghan national security forces are faced with the confusion whether they are fighting for the survival of the State or the continuation in power of Dr. Ghani.”

He said, “The latter they don’t find worth fighting for. The fall of dozens of districts and provincial capitals to Taliban across Afghanistan every week without much of a fight lately is largely resulted of that confusion .”

Zakhilwal said, “The Status Quo, with no change in management of the situation, points to one direction: continued killings and destruction for Afghans and a certain collapse of the entire State-the consequences of which for Afghans are well-known but for regional, neighbouring countries and the rest of the world will also be monumental.”

“The current tough circumstances – stalled peace talks and rapid melting down of the state require simultaneous two-pronged approach – one safeguarding the state from a collapse and another enhanced and authoritative management of peace talks that leads to a definite settlement,” he said.

“Neither is possible under Ashraf Ghani, one, because he has been the main cause of both wasting the opportunities for peace, and also of the rapid decline of the State both in terms of gravitas, authority and geographical control, and second, he has exhausted his entire credibility,” he tweeted.

The further said: “He, therefore, has to go and spare what is left of the Afghan State from the ills of his management. Moving forward (without-Ghani), there is still an opportunity for the main national and international actors to get their act together for peace and stability in Afghanistan, however, the window of opportunity for that has been shrinking rapidly and the margin of error is at its absolute minimum.”