Three cabinet ministers were dismissed by the Afghan parliament on Saturday after the ministers failed to spend their annual development budget.

Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani, Public Works Minister Mahmood Balligh and Labour Minister Nasreen Oryakhel were voted down by the Afghan parliament after it emerged they spent less than 70 per cent of their respective budgets.

Afghanistan is facing economic crisis as it fights an increasingly resilient insurgency.

The country was ranked the third most corrupt in the world in 2015.

The announcement was made by Abdul Rauof Ibrahimi, the head of the Afghan parliament.

President Ashraf Ghani must now introduce new cabinet members for a confidence vote.

Afghanistan’s economy lost a huge chunk of its value after foreign aid organizations stopped pouring funds into the country and international military pulled out a large contingent of its troops from the war-torn nation at the end of 2014.

(dpa/NAN)