Presidential candidate and former head of the National Directorate of Security, Rahmatullah Nabil, on Tuesday, accused President Ashraf Ghani and the First Lady Rula Ghani of using the national treasury for the election campaign.

Nabil also said that some appointments in key government posts are also done for campaign purposes for the upcoming presidential elections, scheduled for September 28. 

“They appoint an employee and ask him to collect votes,” he said in an address to his supporters in the northern province of Balkh.

Nabil, meanwhile, criticized Afghan politicians for attending a conference on peace in Pakistan. He said that Pakistan has been a hostile neighbor to Afghanistan for decades and that there is no justification for the political elites to visit that country.  

“The chief executive [Abdullah Abdullah], the president [Ashraf Ghani, the former president [Hamid Karzai], deputies of the chief executive, vice president, and foreign minister, they all share their walls, they do not talk to each other and instead take their applications to the addresses of others,” said Nabil.

Meanwhile, President Ghani’s spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told reporters that the president would not use government facilities for the election campaign. 

“The Afghan government is committed to holding transparent elections,” Sediqqi said. “Based on the Constitution, the president of Afghanistan has the authority to appoint or remove officials.” 

Other participants of the gathering, Massouda Jalal and Gen. Murad Ali Murad, who are on the same ticket with Nabil, said the country is facing a political crisis. 

“We want to end the crisis with the help of men and women,” said Jalal.