Mawlawi Abdul Kabir Appointed As New Acting Prime Minister of Taliban

A Taliban official has said that the group’s leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada has appointed Mawlawi Abdul Kabir as the acting prime minister of the Taliban’s government.

Hassan Haqyar, an official from Mawlawi Abdul Kabir’s office, told Afghanistan International, that Mullah Hasan Akhund stepped down from his position due to old age and illness.

Over the past few months, Mullah Hasan Akhund has not been attending the Taliban’s official meetings and Mawlawi Abdul Kabir, his political affairs deputy, had been meeting with people and foreign officials.

Though Taliban didn’t provide details about Mullah Hasan’s illness, sources had earlier said that he is suffering from a heart disease.

Mawlawi Abdul Kabir, who is from Paktika province, belongs to the Zadran tribe like Sirajuddin Haqqani. He had been the governor of Nangarhar province during the previous reign of the Taliban in the 90s. It is said that he was the head of the Peshawar Council after the collapse of Taliban regime in 2001.

Later, he became a member of the Taliban’s negotiation team in Qatar and after the collapse of Ashraf Ghani’s government, he had been appointed as the assistant of Taliban’s deputy prime minister in economic affairs and later, as the deputy prime minister of political affairs.