Former interior minister Ali Ahmad Jalali may head interim Afghan govt: Reports

The 81-year-old US-based professor has blamed poor leadership for the Afghan crisis.

Ali Ahmad Jalali, former interior minister of the country, is likely to head the interim government in Afghanistan, reports said as on Sunday the Taliban entered capital Kabul and engaged in a negotiation with the Afghan leadership for a peaceful transition of the government. Citing diplomatic sources, Reuters said Ali Ahmad Jalali, US-Based academic and former Afghan minister is tapped to head the interim afghan administration. He also served as the former Afgan ambassador to Germany.

Ali Ahmad Jalali was the interior minister of the earlier transitional government of Afghanistan in 2003. (Photo: Twitter)

Ali Ahmad Jalali was born in Kabul but was a US citizen since 1987 and resides in Maryland in the US. In 2003, Jalali had returned to Afghanistan and was appointed the minister of interior under the transitional government at that time. In 2004, he was reappointed again as the interior minister and served the post until September 2005.

Jalali was a former colonel in the army and was a top advisor at the Afghan Resistance Headquarters in Peshawar during the Soviet invasion.

"Poor leadership, lack of logistical sustainability, and absence of operational and tactical coordination has taken a heavy toll on the lives and reputation of the dedicated Afghan soldiers. The rapid fall of one-third of Afghanistan provincial capitals within one week belies the much-hyped claims of tenacity of the Afghan National Defense and security forces as they fast crumbled in the face of advancing insurgent fighters. This brings to mind an old military adage saying, “Those who governed well did not arm; those who were armed well did not draw battle lines; those who drew battle lines well did not fight; those who fought well did not lose; those who lost well did not perish," Ali Ahmad Jalali recently tweeted commenting on the recent escalation.