President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday signed the retirement orders of 164 military generals.

The Presidential Palace said the aim of this was to bring reforms to the defense ministry and to provide opportunities to younger officers.

The defense ministry said currently there are 5,000 educated youths who have applied to join the defense force.

Defense ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said the move would allow the ministry to employ some of these applicants.  

Waziri said however that the newly-retired generals were on standby and were not directly involved in the day-to-day running of the ministry. 

“They were not practically involved in the ministry’s work and were on standby but now employment opportunities are provided for youths in the ministry and soon we will start hiring them,” said Waziri. 

“This is part of reforms in the defense ministry and this will continue in future,” the CEO’s deputy spokesman Jawed Faisal said. 

The draft law for retirement of 2,000 generals and high-ranking military officers was finalized and approved by parliament in November last year. 

Senate defense commission head Hashim Alokozay however said the move to pension off experienced military personnel comes at a bad time, given the fragility of the security situation in the country.

“As Afghanistan is at war, I don't believe that losing experienced generals be to the benefit of the country's security,” said Alokozay. 

Based on the new retirement law, colonels will retire at the age of 54, major generals at the age of 58, lieutenant generals at 60 and generals will retire at the age of 62.