Afghan Defense Minister Quits, Hands Karzai a Security Headache
Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak resigned on Tuesday after losing a no-confidence vote in parliament, leaving President Hamid Karzai scrambling to find a replacement for one of his top security tsars as insurgent attacks mount.
Wardak, in charge of the army and one of the country’s two key security ministers, told reporters he accepted parliament’s decision, which has clouded NATO plans to hand security responsibilities to Afghan forces before the end of 2014.
“I respected the parliament’s decision to twice appoint me as defence minister, and now I accept the parliament decision to remove me. I resign my position,” Wardak told journalists.
Karzai’s increasingly unpopular government was already under a cloud, with Finance Minister Hazarat Omar Zakhilwal vulnerable as a result of accusations aired on Afghan television that he stashed more than $1 million in overseas banks.