The Afghan Minister of Public Health Ahmad Jawad Osmani on Thursday said that President Ashraf Ghani has asked him to step down from his post.
“Yesterday the honorable president asked me to resign from my post, but I reasoned with him that there are no legal obstacles in my way to continue my job,” he said.
“Today again he phoned me and asked to step down from my job, I have not resigned from my post, but today a notification letter was issued from the Administrative Office of the President which in a way portrays the situation as the resignation of the minister of public health has been approved. I think we should strengthen governance among Afghans, with this method and approach we can't promote good governance,” added Osmani.
“This is a totally unilateral and a political conspiracy,” said Osmani.
Meanwhile, the Presidential Palace in a statement said that President Ashraf Ghani went to the Ministry of Public Health this evening to pay homage to medical personnel who lost their lives on the frontlines in the fight against COVID-19.
“The recent situation that emerged in the Ministry of Public Health is tragic and shameful..the law must be upheld and those who violated the law must be held accountable.” The statement said qouting Ghani as saying.
"President Ghani clarified that no political person will be appointed to this ministry, a caretaker will be appointed and you will have professional personnel," said the statement.
President Ghani said that all appointments and reshuffling in the Ministry of Public Health will be carried out in line with the law and all appointment lists will be considered invalid without his signature.
This comes days after four people were arrested at the Ministry of Public Health for demanding bribes, the Attorney General Office’s spokesman Jamshid Rasouli said on Tuesday.
“Investigations are ongoing about the arrested people” Rasouli said, adding that “these people were arrested in coordination with the National Directorate of Security (NDS)."
The source said that the brother and cousin of Health Minister Jawad Osmani, plus his adviser and the head of ministry projects, are the four people arrested on corruption charges.
The brother and cousin of the public health minister do not have official jobs in the ministry but sought bribes by "using the minister's name," sources said.
The four people asked several heads of provincial health departments "to pay them monthly $70,000 to $80,000,” the source added.
The Health Ministry has not yet commented on the arrests.