Khalid Payenda, a former finance minister of Afghanistan, who once oversaw and presented a 6 billion dollar budget, is now an Uber driver in Washington DC to support his family.?
Talking to The Washington Post he said he earns ¡°a little over 150 dollars for six hours' work, not counting his commute¡±.
After the Taliban takeover in August last year, Afghanistan is reeling under a deep financial and humanitarian crisis. Many governments around the world are hesitant to recognise the Taliban government that overthrew the US-backed regime.
Payenda had resigned as the Finance Minister of the country a week before the Taliban took control of the capital city due to straining relations with Prime Minister Ashraf Ghani.
He tweeted back on August 10 saying ¡°Today I stepped down as the Acting Minister of Finance. Leading MoF was the greatest honor of my life but it was time to step down to attend to personal priorities.¡±?
He left Afghanistan due to his fear of being arrested by the government and joined his family in the United States of America.
In his interview with The Washington Post he said moving had been ¡°quite an adjustment¡±, but was grateful to be able to support his family in any way he could.
Payenda also blames the US or Afghanistan's current situation, as the withdrawal of troops had allowed the Taliban to take over.
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