Afghanistan’s central bank governor has resigned and fled to the US, saying his life is in danger over a corruption probe targeting influential figures connected to the government.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government yesterday dismissed the claims of Abdul Qadir Fitrat, chairman of Da Afghanistan Bank, saying his life was not under threat and calling him a “runaway governor.”
“I announce my resignation from the position of governor of the central bank of Afghanistan immediately,” Fitrat said in a statement issued as he visited the US, where he reportedly has permanent residency.
“Unfortunately, central bank’s independence on regulatory and supervisory matters has recently been undermined by the repeated interference of high-level political authorities,” he said.
The governor has said his role in an investigation into the near-collapse last year of Kabul Bank, the war-torn country’s largest private lender, had endangered his life.
“My life was completely in danger and this was particularly true after I spoke to the parliament and exposed some people who are responsible for the crisis of Kabul Bank,” he was quoted as saying by the BBC.
In April, Fitrat named in parliament high-profile figures who were allegedly involved in a corruption scandal that netted nearly US$1 billion at Kabul Bank, which handles the pay of thousands of Afghan civil servants.
The bank was founded in 2004 by Sherkhan Farnood, a leading international poker player. Its co-owners included Mahmood Karzai, a brother of President Karzai, and a brother of Afghan Vice President Mohammed Qasim Fahim.
The scandal has highlighted chaos and corruption in Afghanistan’s financial system at a time when US-led combat troops are looking to exit the country, a decade after ousting the fundamentalist Taliban regime.
Some foreign troop withdrawals are due to start next month, with 10,000 US forces scheduled to leave by the end of this year.
President Karzai’s spokesman Waheed Omer angrily dismissed Fitrat’s claims.
“We don’t think that’s very valid. He never actually told anyone in the government that his life was in danger,” Omer said. “This is basically an escape not a resignation … the formal procedures have not been adhered to. He’s not a governor, but a runaway governor.”
Omer said that Fitrat may have been trying to escape from “legal implications” surrounding the Kabul Bank scandal, without giving any details.
And the spokesman said that Fitrat’s departure was “not going to have a major impact” on Afghanistan’s ability to resolve the Kabul Bank crisis.
The lender was taken over last year by Afghanistan’s central bank after claims that executives granted themselves off-the-book loans worth a reported US$900 million that were partly used to buy luxury properties in Dubai.
The IMF wants the government to take steps to ensure a similar scandal does not happen again before it approves a new assistance program for the country.
The impasse has already seen hundreds of millions of dollars in international aid money to Afghanistan being withheld this year.
Fitrat is reportedly holed up in a hotel in Washington’s Virginia suburbs and refusing to return to Afghanistan.
“We do know that he is in Washington,” US Department of State spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.
Fitrat said in April that only about US$47 million in cash of the US$900 million had been recouped so far.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese