Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani has hit back at his Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah over his recent remarks that he, Ghani, is not taking solid steps to address certain national issues, saying he does not believe those who do not believe him.

Speaking to a gathering of Afghan youths on Friday, the president said that those who support corrupt elements in fact try to obscure the government's reform agendas.

"I am a transitional president, the one who follows negative interests will not believe in me, I also do not believe him. On what context I am a transitional, because I have not a political family and you {youths) are my family," Ghani said.

The war of words between the president and his CEO sparked reactions from the Afghan political commentators with some saying that disagreements between the two leaders appear to be increasing, they called on the leaders to avoid a possible crisis in the country.

"These are the topics I shared with you today, I am going to raise these issues with the president of Afghanistan and hope there is space and the right-mind to discuss the realities of Afghanistan. The era of deceiving someone with sweets and pastries have passed," said Abdullah.

In reference to Abdullah's remarks, the presidency has denounced the statement saying it was against the principles of governance.

‎"Unfortunately, statements made by Mr. Abdullah Abdullah yesterday were in contradiction to the spirit and morale of the governance, because governance is based on principles and legal procedures and in line with that actions are taken. National unity government will move ahead as a collection, serious discussions will be held on his remarks in the near future," said presidential spokesman Haroon Chakhansuri.

Meanwhile, a number of participants who attended the gathering have told TOLOnews that whenever he attempted to take action against corruption, their backers created obstructions in the way of government's reform agenda.

"The reality of the false reforms undertaken under the pretext of the law that send one thief to prison and another one as ambassador has been disclosed. I remind you only of one small example, there are a lot of similar cases. Double standard approach and resolute double standard criteria need to be stopped, Dr. Abdullah should come and defend those values he has promised or clearly announce it to the people of Afghanistan that he cannot defend the rights of people by working in such a system," said Amrullah Saleh, the former chief of Directorate of Security NDS.

Some others argue that the two officials should resolve their disputes through negotiations.

"The agreement needs to be put in place and the system must change in order to create a balance so that the people can realize that there is accountability and transparency by those having the responsibility. What was discussed by Dr. Abdullah and what had been defined in the political agreement is the milestone which needs to be changed," said Ahmad Wali Massoud, chairman of Ahmad Shah Massoud Foundation.

"If leaders of the national unity government manage to work more closely with each other, this could leave positive impacts on the people, but if there is disagreements between them, this would have negative repercussions on the people," senator Mohammad Asif Sediqqi said.

"Unfortunately, no reforms were implemented, corruption exists in large scale, in the election sphere, we noted that government leaders by using management tricks in fact played with the future of the people," civil society activist Ahmad Zaki said.

"Leaders of national unity government must swiftly resolve their disputes which have taken victims from the poor people, they must come out of the political selfishness and narrow-minded ethnic issues," said another activist Ainuddin Baig.

Abdullah changed tone on Ghani in the aftermath of the nomination of former chairman of the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan (IEC) Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani as Afghan ambassador to Spain and the appointment of Nadir Naderi as chairman of the public service commission.

It is said that the president did not consult Abdullah while making the appointments.

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