Afghanistan's interior minister Mujtaba Patang has been sacked less than a year after taking office. Source: AAP
AFGHAN President Hamid Karzai has contested parliament's decision to sack his interior minister for failing to stem rising Taliban attacks.
MPs sought to oust Mujtaba Patang as Afghan forces increasingly replace US-led NATO troops, scheduled to withdraw next year, and as the government searches for ways to open peace talks with the insurgents.
Patang, who took office less than a year ago, lost a vote of confidence by 136 to 60 in the lower house of parliament, or Wolesi Jirga.
"He's lost the vote of confidence and I on behalf of the Wolesi Jirga request the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to introduce another individual to the parliament for a vote of confidence," said speaker Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi.
Patang, a former deputy interior minister and a career police officer, was dismissed a month after the Afghan government formally took over responsibility for nationwide security from foreign troops.
He has been widely accused of incompetence since taking on the portfolio. Unlike former warlords who dominate Afghan politics, he lacks a strong personal power base.
Karzai announced in a statement that although it was the MPs' right to pass a vote of no confidence, he was appealing to the Supreme Court before deciding whether or not to accept Patang's dismissal.
"He emphasises that the giving no confidence vote should be justified and according to the law," said Karzai's office.
"For clarification the president decided to refer the issue to the Supreme Court, and after the Supreme Court rules, he will decide on it," it added.
Patang defended his record in response to a barrage of accusations from the floor, saying that his police force of 157,000 was on the frontline of the war.
He said 2,748 Afghan police had been killed since March 21, in what would be an astonishing rate of around 22 a day.
A spokesman for the ministry later told AFP that the figure included police who had been injured as well as killed.
Afghanistan's 350,000-strong security forces are suffering a steep rise in attacks as the NATO combat mission winds down, with police and army casualties previously said to have increased by 15-20 per cent since 2011.
Patang likened the ministry he had inherited to "an old car with a broken engine". Afghan and foreign money had been wasted, he said, because there was no system.
"In eight months I have created a system. I have made 122 policies and strategies for the interior ministry," he said.
Instead, other people were responsible for insecurity, he said.
In another example of Afghan officials lashing out at their US backers, Patang said an American convoy had paid $US1 million to the Taliban in bribes to get to Badghis province when he was police commander of northern Afghanistan.
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