KABUL: Afghanistan on Wednesday ordered a New York Times correspondent to leave the country after he wrote an article saying g ministers and officials were threatening to seize power to end a standoff over election results.

The attorney general’s office said the article was “against the national interests and the national security of Afghanistan” and that Matthew Rosenberg must depart within 24 hours.

The move underlined fears that media freedom gained since the fall of the Taliban in 2001 are being lost as the US-led military intervention and civilian aid programme in Afghanistan wind down.

Know more: Afghanistan stops NYT journalists from leaving

“It is not the first time that the paper has involved itself in Afghanistan’s internal political affairs for its own political purposes and agenda,” Aimal Faizi, spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, said in an email.

“Such biased reporting, not properly sourced, can be considered nothing but a fabrication.

“We are fully committed to the freedom of press. It is just to stop the evil in the New York Times reporting.”

The Afghan government has been paralysed for months after the first round of the presidential election failed to produce a clear winner and the second round of voting in June triggered allegations of massive fraud.

Both Ashraf Ghani, a former World Bank economist, and former anti-Taliban fighter Abdullah Abdullah have claimed victory in the race to succeed Karzai.

The impasse has raised fears of a return to the divisions of the 1990s civil war, when ethnic conflict ravaged the country and allowed the Taliban to seize power.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2014