Afghanistan’s Central Bank Governor has resigned and fled to the United States, saying his life is in danger over a corruption probe targeting influential figures connected to the government.
President Hamid Karzai’s government yesterday dismissed the claims made by Abdul Qadir Fitrat, chairman of Da Afghanistan Bank, insisting 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,” Mr Fitrat said in a statement issued as he visited the United States, 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 claimed his role in an investigation into the near-collapse last year of Kabul Bank, the war-torn country’s largest private lender, had put him in peril.
“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, Mr Fitrat named in Parliament high-profile figures who were allegedly involved in corruption scandal amounting to nearly $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 Hamid Karzai, and a brother of Vice President Mohammad Qasim Fahim.
The scandal has highlighted chaos and corruption in Afghanistan’s financial system at a time when US-led combat troops are due to start leaving the country, a decade after ousting the fundamentalist Taliban regime.
Some foreign troop withdrawals are due to start next month, with 10,000 United States forces scheduled to leave by the end of this year.
President Karzai’s spokesman Waheed Omer angrily dismissed Mr 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,” Mr 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.”
Mr Omer indicated that Mr Fitrat may have been trying to escape from “legal implications” surrounding the Kabul Bank scandal, without giving any details. The spokesman insisted that Mr Fitrat’s departure was “not going to have a major impact” on Afghanistan’s ability to resolve the Kabul Bank crisis.
Last year’s near-collapse of the bank led to long queues of nervous investors forming outside banks across Kabul and news of Mr Fitrat’s resignation prompted anxiety about the state of the financial system among some Kabulis.
“I will not withdraw my money yet, but I am concerned,” said Fazull Rahman, a teacher and foreign currency exchanger, speaking outside a branch of Kabul Bank in the city.
“The fact that the chief of the Central Bank has been threatened and been forced to quit shows that corrupt strongmen are still in control, they will not allow reforms in the banking system. I am disappointed and worried.”
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 $900 million that were partly used to buy luxury properties in Dubai.