The Taliban’s leader has ordered Afghan officials to fire relatives they have appointed to government positions.
According to Hibatullah Akhundzada’s decree, officials should replace appointed sons or other family members – and avoid hiring relatives in the future.
When the Taliban took power in 2021, they fired some senior officials and fled others.
There have been allegations that inexperienced employees were hired because of personal connections.
According to the Afghan Islamic Press, based in Peshawar, Pakistan, the decree was issued in response to allegations that several senior Taliban officials had appointed their sons to government positions.
On Saturday, a photo of the decree was posted to the Office of Administrative Affairs’ Twitter page.
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Since the Taliban swept into Kabul and reclaimed control of the country, Afghanistan has faced a worsening economic and humanitarian crisis. Foreign military forces had been stationed in the country for more than two decades, fighting a war that had killed tens of thousands and displaced millions more.
Since then, members of the Taliban government have been sanctioned, the central bank’s overseas assets have been frozen, and most foreign funding has been suspended, effectively cutting off an economic lifeline.
Afghanistan is estimated to have natural resources worth more than $1 trillion (£831.5 billion), including natural gas, copper, and rare earths, but those reserves remain untapped due to decades of conflict in the country.
The Taliban government’s treatment of women has outraged the international community, further isolating it as its economy collapses.
Women’s and girls’ education has been particularly contentious. In most of Afghanistan, girls and women are currently barred from secondary schools and universities.