Khalid Payenda, former Afghanistan Finance minister, drives taxi in US
Categories: FOREIGN COUNTRIES
Payenda quit after President Ashraf Ghani attacked him in a public gathering barely a week before the Taliban took control of Kabul.He had no idea at the time that the government had fallen to the Taliban.Payenda quit because he thought he had lost Ashraf Ghani's trust.After coming to the US, Payenda said that he was reunited with his family. He had in Afghanistan once oversaw the US-supported $6 billion budget, according to the airport. Payenda described his transition from Kabul to Washington as "quite an adjustment" to a fellow traveller.He also chastised the Americans for handing the country over to the Taliban, claiming that they had betrayed the enduring values that had supposedly motivated their battle."It eats at you from the inside out," he explained."Right now, I don't have anywhere to stay," he explained. "I'm not supposed to be here, and I'm not supposed to be there.It's a depressing sensation."The Taliban last August took control of Afghanistan after President Joe Biden ended the 20-year military mission in Afghanistan.