Hekmatyar’s one-man show forces key members to quit: Experts

KABUL (HIA), firm control on his party has forced other key members to part ways with the party.

HIA is a largest political and Jihadi party and has public support nation-wide. Some key members of the party separated ways with the party in recent years.

Waheedullah Sabawon, Abdul Hadi Arghandiwal and Eng. Mohammad Khan are some of its key members who abandoned the party almost 20 years back.

Some photographs disseminated on social media show some key HIA members are seen consulting to make new alliances.

Among them are former Wolesi Jirga Speaker Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi, former Balkh Governor Juma Khan Hamdard, Akbar Barakzai, Maidan Wardak Governor Muzafaruddin Yamen and some other key members.

Qazi Amin Waqad and Maulvi Sarfaraz co-chaired the meeting. A participant of the meeting, who wished to go unnamed, said every member was unhappy with Hekmatyar because of his unchallenged control over the HIA.

They believed major decision were taken by Hekmatyar, his son Habiburahman, sons in law Ghairat Baheer and Humayon Jarir.

Fazal Ghani Haqmal, HIA media man, declined to comment over the fresh split in the party when asked by Pajhwok Afghan News.

But a source within the HIA told Pajhwok Afghan News that after fresh reshuffle within the HIA few months back, these individuals lost their influence in HIA and now they had decided to take lead by themselves.

According to the source, these individuals appointed their men in HIA hierarchy and tried to influence HIA policies according to their wish, but their aides were removed in recent months and replaced by fresh faces.

The source said these individuals were politically active when Hekmatyar was at war with the Kabul administration but failed to fulfill Hekmatyar’s place and their political presence was ineffective then.

Political expert Shafiq Hamdard said there were some reasons why HIA members parted ways.

He said some HIA members quitted the party during Bonn conference, some during Hamid Karzai’s tenure and others in Ashraf Ghani’s government.

He said these individuals had worked in a system and earned fame and wealth in this system. It was difficult for them to rejoin and work under Hekmatyar who has strong control over his party and performed a one man show.

Hamdard said another reason was that Hekmatyar was still in his past mode and Jihadi mindset. At the time, the situation was difficult and people accepted his leadership because there was no other option.

He said Hekmatyar after signing peace agreement kept his control over his party and held everything under his control that mad many key members unhappy.

He said individuals who held a gathering yesterday had not been consulted over presidential polls. He said Hekmatyar nominated himself as candidate before consulting key members that annoyed them.

Habib Rahman Ibrahimi, another political affairs expert, said that some activities of HIA leadership forced its key members to part ways with the HIA.

He added HIA has an executive council and all its activities should be performed from that address but Hekmatyar recently monopolized many things.

Nh/ma

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