Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah on Monday criticized President Ashraf Ghani for his move to fire the energy and water minister and said disrupting a ministry because of a recommendation by an advisor was not acceptable.  

Abdullah made the remarks at a Council of Ministers meeting.

Ghani on Saturday fired energy and water minister Ali Ahmad Osmani. Abdullah immediately opposed the move. 

Osmani however on Sunday returned to work as usual and even signed a $13 million solar power project for Daikundi province. 

Abdullah said it was not acceptable for a minister to be fired on the recommendation of Mohammad Humayun Qayumi, an advisor to Ghani on infrastructure. 

“When a ministry’s work is disrupted based on the proposal of an adviser, it should not be tolerated, and we have a responsibility to pay attention in this regard,” said Abdullah. 

Abdullah said making decisions on such issues, and firing a minister, should be discussed inside government. He also questioned the role of some of the advisors in the National Unity Government(NUG). 

“It is worth mentioning that the departments (ministries) will remain, but the advisors will not. We have experienced the advisors in the past, some of them have gone with all they had and today we cannot even find where they are,” Abdullah added. 

Once again MPs warned that the ongoing differences between the NUG leaders need to be resolved.

“The continuation of disagreements between government leaders will have a bad impact on all affairs including political, economic and security as well as on the infrastructure projects which are the only achievement of the National Unity Government,” MP Ghulam Farooq Majrooh said. 

Sources said disagreement between Ghani and Osmani emerged a few months ago after the president gave Qayumi more authority regarding the energy and water ministry and after Osmani refused to recruit staff recommended by Ghani.