A senior official from the Administrative Office of the President (AOP) has been asked by the head of the organization to resign after a “classified” document shared by him on a social media platform pointed towards alleged discrimination in the appointment process of officials in that office.
The document was “mistakenly” shared on Telegram - a messaging group - by Sawabdin Makhkash, the deputy chief of monitoring and observation at the Administrative Office of the President.
An official from the office said on condition of anonymity that the document was classified.
The official confirmed that the document was legitimate and said the head of the office also confirmed this.
According to the source, the head of the office has stated that a group of people were trying to bring changes but that he was not in support of this.
The source also said the chairman of the Administrative Office of the President has asked Makhkash to resign from his post.
The document, called Main Deliverables, has 12 articles.
After sharing a copy of the document in the group, Makhkash immediately wrote “wrong chat”, “guys”, referring to the document having been posted accidentally.
The members of Telegram chat group, who are officials from the office, were divided in their response. Some showed support while others opposed the items mentioned in the document.
“The Herat Pashtuns who cannot speak Pashto shall be appointed and we shall symbolically appoint Tajiks and Uzbeks who will definitely work based on our demand in order that people would think that the officials of the Administrative Office of the President are from all ethnic groups,” reads the 9th article of the document.
The editor in chief of the Etilaat Roz daily newspaper, Zaki Daryabi, which published the document for the first time, said some officials at the office were concerned about the “current situation in the department”.
“This information was sent to Etilaat Roz with the cooperation of a number of officials and compatriots who believe in a united Afghanistan,” he said.
“The goal of them was to give information about the discrimination and division being created by another group at the Administrative Office of the President.”
TOLOnews contacted Makhkash but he said he would talk about the issue at a later stage.
“This is an allegation and it is baseless. A file has been made and has been sent to disturb public minds (about the office),” he wrote to TOLOnews on Facebook.
Meanwhile, a number of MPs and senators called for a thorough investigation into the issue.
“Every Afghan from ethnic groups whether they are Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbek or Hazara has the right to work for government according to the law,” said Tayyib Atta, the first secretary of Meshrano Jirga, the Upper House of the Parliament.
“This affects the national unity of Afghanistan definitely,” said Zahir Sadat, a member of the Wolesi Jirga, the Lower House of the Parliament.
It is said that the document was originally meant to be shared with only a select group of senior officials of the Administrative Office of the President, but that it was accidently posted to another group.