KABUL, Aug 7: Afghan Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak resigned on Tuesday after losing a no-confidence vote in parliament, leaving President Hamid Karzai scrambling to find a replacement for one of his top security tsars as militant attacks mount.

Wardak, in charge of the army and one of the country’s two key security ministers, told reporters he accepted parliament’s decision, which has clouded Nato plans to hand security responsibilities to Afghan forces before the end of 2014.

“I respected the parliament’s decision to twice appoint me as defence minister, and now I accept the parliament decision to remove me. I resign my position,” Wardak told journalists.

Karzai’s increasingly unpopular government was already under a cloud, with Finance Minister Hazarat Omar Zakhilwal vulnerable as a result of accusations aired on Afghan television that he stashed more than $1 million in overseas banks.

The fractious parliament voted on Saturday to remove Wardak and Interior Minister Bismillah Mohammadi after recent militant assassinations of senior officials, as well as cross-border attacks blamed on Pakistan. Wardak’s decision to quit immediately leaves one of Karzai’s most vital cabinet posts vacant at the peak of the summer fighting months and as US and French troops draw down.—Reuters