KABUL - Public Health Minister Dr. Ahmad Jawad Osmani was removed from office through a presidential decree issued on Thursday.
A letter from the Administrative Office of the President received by Pajhwok Afghan News says “the minister’s resignation has been approved and any manager found guilty of corruption would be responsible for that.”
Some sources had previously said the president had asked Osmani to resign. However, Osmani in a new video message said, “I was asked by the president yesterday to resign from my job, but I argued that there is no legal issue for continuing my work, today he telephoned me again and told me I should resign.”
He said he did not resign but he received a letter in the Ministry of Public Health that showed his resignation had been approved.
“I think governance needs to be improved in Afghanistan, it cannot get better by this way. This decision was totally a political conspiracy, I wanted to share the matter with our people,” he said.
Four days back, intelligence officials arrested four relatives of the public health minister on bribery charges. Some sources had told Pajhwok that the detainees had demanded bribes from four provincial public health directors but they were arrested by intelligence officials. (Pajhwok)