Documents obtained by TOLOnews show that President Ashraf Ghani has ordered the retirement of eight Afghan ambassadors and 16 employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA.)
The documents show that the ambassadors and employees were pensioned off on Thursday, at MoFA’s suggestion and with the approval of Ghani.
The ambassadors are:
• Massood Khalili, Afghanistan ambassador to Spain.
• Ali Ahmad Jalali, Afghanistan ambassador to Germany.
• Abdul Qayyum Kochai, Afghanistan ambassador to Russia.
• Faizullah Kakar, Afghanistan ambassador to Qatar.
• Omar Said Sultan, Afghanistan ambassador to Greece.
• Mangal Hussain, Afghanistan ambassador to Kuwait.
• Abdul Rahim Sayed, Afghanistan ambassador to Turkey.
• Nasir Ahmad Noor, Afghanistan ambassador to Iran.
“We cannot continue giving and allowing old men to be in such positions and use lack of experience by youths as an excuse. It did not bring a positive result in any country in the world, especially in technocracy,” former chief of National Directorate of Security Amrullah Saleh told TOLOnews.
In addition to the ambassadors, Moeen Marastial, Consul General of Afghanistan in Peshawar city in Pakistan also has been pensioned off.
Sixteen MoFA employees working in different sections of the ministry have also been pensioned off.
In another decree, Ghani ordered the foreign ministry to dismiss 49 other ministerial employees working in diplomatic positions after failing to provide the ministry with educational certificates despite having had two weeks to do so.
“Those employees who are not expert in international relations and trade should be dismissed from the ministry,” Nematullah Kohistani, an international affairs analyst said.
“If we can appoint professional people and competent diplomats in the foreign ministry, doubtless our problems will be resolved and we can maintain Afghanistan’s national interests inside and outside the country,” Bismillah Ranjbar, another international affairs analyst said.
Ghani stated in the decree that the foreign ministry and the Independent Administration Reform and Civil Service Commission must announce the positions immediately after the dismissal of the 49 employees and hire new staff.