Wahid Omar, the former head of strategic and public affairs for Afghanistan’s former President Ashraf Ghani, says Ghani did not want to leave the presidential palace on August 15, 2021, but his colleagues forced him to leave.
Omar, who left the presidential palace alongside Ghani on the day the Islamic Republic collapsed, said in an interview that he witnessed the developments and rapidly changing situation firsthand that day.
According to him, the republican government had effectively collapsed before Ghani’s departure, and the president no longer had any practical authority in Afghanistan.
Omar says that, given the circumstances at the time, whether the president stayed or left would not have had a significant impact on the situation in Afghanistan. However, Ghani’s departure became a “historic reproach” against him.
He added that if Ghani had remained in Afghanistan, the decision might have ultimately benefited him personally in the long term.
Writer:Saeed Sameer
