KABUL, 01 August 2021, (TON): Some lawmakers from the defense committees of the two houses of the parliament said that the poor management in the Ministry of Defense (MoD) in the span of one year under its former leadership is behind the deteriorating security situation in the country during which over 200 districts have fallen to the Taliban.

The absence of the former defense minister Asadullah Khalid for seven months last year was one of the major issues that led to challenges in the Ministry of Defense and affected battlefields, said Hashem Alokozay, the head of the Senate’s Defense Committee.

Alokozay said “the entire challenges emancipated from the seven months’ absence of (former) minister of defense during a difficult time. We saw that many districts fell to the Taliban without resistance.”

Ali Akbar Jamshidi, member of the Afghan Parliament’s Defense Committee, said that former US commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Scott Miller often opposed the dismissal of Assadullah Khalid as the defense minister. This led to challenges in the Ministry of Defense, he said.

In Khalid’s absence, Gen. Yasin Zia was appointed as acting minister of defense while he was also the chief of army staff.