LONDON, May 4: Afghanistan sCommunist Party today chose
sec-urity chief Najibullah to replaceBabrak Karmal as its General
Sec-retary but kept the ailing leader asthe country s President,
RadioKabul reported.The party s central committeeapproved Karmal s
request to bereplaced on health grounds, theradio said.
Karmal returned last Thursdayfrom a mysterious month-longhealth
check-up in the Soviet Un-ion that prompted speculation hewas
either sick or out of favour withMoscow.Karmal did not appear at a
keyparade marking the eighth an-
8/12/2019 Karmal Resigns
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Karmal quits party postContinued frompage 1)
ing to introduce reforms fastenough.Karmal rem ains head of the
Re-volutionary Council, Kabul s legis-la ture , which last January
was ex-panded to include non-communistmembers in a bid for wider
popularsupport. .Najibullah, a 39-year-old doctor,was until last
year head of theKhad secret police.A Pashtun from the tribal
beltalong the Pakistan border, he wasthen promoted to overall
securitychief in a move that Western di-plomats said marked him as
a ma-jor contender for power.AIR adds: Mr Babrak Karmal hasresigned
from the Secretary-Generalship of the ruling People sDemocratic
Party of Afghanistan(PDPA) on Sunday, All-India
Radioreported.Quoting the officialRadio abulbroadcast, the AIR said
that MrKarmal will continue to hold thepost of the President of
theRepublic.Dr Najeebullah, formerly chiefof the Afghan Security
Affairs andone of the senior member of theruling PDPA politburo,
was electedas the new Secretary-General ofthe ruling party.The
ruling PDPA has acceptedthe resignation of Mr Babrak Kar-mal from
the party leadership, whoresigned on health reasons. He
onlyreturned to Kabul two days backfrom Soviet Union.There was
growing criticism ofMr Babrak Karmal by the Sovietmedia for his
alleged failure inbroadening the political base of theruling party.
This resulted in widespeculations in the western mediathat he was
being replaced.Dr Mohammad Najeebullah wasone of the few leaders
who escaped
arrest, remained outside and or-ganised the Saur Revolution in
Ap-ril 1978 when the Afghan forcesoverthrew President Dawood.When
President Amin overthrewPresident Noor Mohammad Taraki,later in
1979, Dr Najeebullah wasalso deprived of his ministerialpost and
party leadership alongwith Mr Babrak Karmal and otherleaders of the
Parcham faction.He was appointed as Afghan Am-bassador to Iran
where he re-mained till President HafizullahAmin was overthrown and
killedfollowed by induction of Soviettroops in Afghanistan.BBC
adds: An announcement by abul Radio said that the resigna-tion of
Babrak Karmal has been ac-
cepted by a m eeting of the Party sCentral Committee.About Dr
Najeebullah, BBC cor-respondent indicated that he wascentrally
involved in the aggres-sive military and politicalcampaigns against
the guerilla in-filtration along the borders withPakistan.The
announcement of the newAfghan leader came on the eve ofthe latest
round of talks betweenPakistan and Afghanistan inGeneva.
