Afghan President Ashraf Ghani left the country on Sunday fleeing the Taliban and declaring victory for the insurgent group as militants entered Kabul — nearly 20 years after they were ousted from power by a US-led invasion.
Ghani left as the insurgents closed in on the capital, before ultimately entering the city and taking over the presidential palace, sealing a nationwide military victory in just 10 days.
72-year-old Ghani, who prided himself on being one of the foremost global experts on failed states, will be remembered for the collapse of administration in Afghanistan.
Before Presidency
Before becoming president in 2014, Ghani enjoyed a stellar career abroad as an academic and economist focused on failed states, only returning 24 years later to pursue his dream of rebuilding the country. He studied at New York’s Columbia University, before teaching in the United States during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
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He worked with the World Bank from 1991, becoming an expert on the Russian coal industry, and finally moved back to Kabul as a senior UN special adviser soon after the Taliban were routed in late 2001. In the days that followed, he was a key architect of the interim government and became a powerful finance minister under President Hamid Karzai from 2002 to 2004, campaigning hard against burgeoning corruption.
Did the ‘Worst Job on Earth’
After performing poorly in the 2009 election, Ghani shocked many Afghans in 2014 by winning after choosing as a running mate General Abdul Rashid Dostum, an Uzbek warlord accused of numerous human rights abuses.
He encouraged wealthy expat Afghans to return home, and cajoled donors as the country emerged from the austere Taliban era. As a Pashtun, he also started using his tribal name Ahmadzai a couple of years ago to underline his background, though he stresses the importance of unifying Afghanistan’s disparate ethnic groups.
In an interview with the BBC in 2017, Ghani said he had “the worst job on earth”. Still, he claimed that Afghan security forces had turned a corner against the Taliban and coalition forces would be able to leave by 2021.
From President to Villain in Hiding
During his presidency, US President Donald Trump’s administration started direct talks with the Taliban in a bid to end America’s longest war, and shut Ghani out of the process. After President Joe Biden set a withdrawal deadline for August 31 this year, Ghani resisted calls to step aside and allow a transitional government to take power as the Taliban made military advances.
With the Taliban capturing provincial capital in blitzkrieg, Ghani had to flee as the insurgent forces took Kabul last Sunday. Ghani resigned and fled abroad, escorted by cars filled with cash, the Russian embassy told Sputnik on Monday.
In his first comments after he left Afghanistan, Ghani in a Facebook post on Sunday had said he was faced with a “hard choice” between the “armed Taliban” who wanted to enter the Presidential Palace or “leaving the dear country that I dedicated my life to protecting the past 20 years”. In another message yesterday, Ghani detailed his ‘escape’ from the Taliban. “I was evacuated in a condition where I couldn’t even put on my shoes,” he said.
However, Ghani is left with few supporters.
In a video message on Facebook, Abdullah Abdullah — a long-time rival who heads the government’s peace process — suggested Ghani would be harshly judged.
“God hold him accountable, and the people will have their judgment,” he said.
Afghan Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi called on Interpol on Wednesday to arrest President Ashraf Ghani.
People from Afghanistan vent out their anger on social media terming the president a “coward” for leaving his fellow country people in chaos. “Shame on the president who left this poor country like this and escaped,” Abdul Hai, a resident told UNI.
The United States also reiterated that it did not see Ashraf Ghani as a player in Afghanistan, after the ousted president vowed to return.
“He is no longer a figure in Afghanistan,” Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told reporters as she declined to comment on the United Arab Emirates’ decision to grant him asylum.
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