 Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum yesterday resigned as head of his feared northern militia to take up a post in President Hamid Karzai's government, his deputy said. Dostum, one of Afghanistan's most powerful warlords, was appointed by Karzai as chief of staff of the high command of the country's armed forces, a largely symbolic post that removes the faction leader from his Shiberghan powerbase.| Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer |
"Yes, Gen. Dostum has resigned as leader of party," deputy party leader, Abdul Majid Rozi, told AFP, referring to the "Jumbesh Milli Islami Party", drawn mostly from ethnic Uzbeks. Rozi said Dostum would take his new post in "few days." Sayed Noorullah, formerly serving as deputy leader of the party, had been appointed as interim leader of the faction, he said. The faction yesterday was registered with the Ministry of Justice as a formal political party under which it can run for the war-torn country's first parliamentary elections due later this year, Rozi added. |