The Taliban's appointment of Mohammad Ashraf Ghairat as the new interim chancellor of Kabul University on Wednesday has sparked fury on social media after the resurfacing of his old tweet calling for the death of"spies" posing as journalists. His holding a Bachelor's degree was also called into question as many felt the post called for an experienced PhD.

Ghairat replaces Muhammad Osman Baburi a professor in pharmacy who was made VC in 2020. He also served as Deputy Minister of Higher Education for Academic Affairs between 2007-2017.

Many have criticized the move to appointment a "non professional."

While others call his qualifications into account.

Ghairat took to social media himself to address these concerns saying he was qualified to lead an academic institution as he led Al Hijra Institute for three years, for example. He also said he was a Hafiz e Quran, could speak Pashto, Arabic and English and that he was a long time opponent of the western occupation of Afghanistan.

According to a story in Khaama on Wednesday, Ghairat previously worked in the ministry of education Ghani's government and was also head of the assessment body of universities of IEA in the southwestern part of Afghanistan.

Critics have also made public an old tweet of his wherein he justifies the killing of journalists.

However, he has taken to Twitter to distance himself from them calling them false and accusations made by Afghans living abroad.

Kabul University has said the position is an interim one and can always be reshuffled.

Despite the maelstrom on Twitter, Ghairat is using his Twitter account to fight back. On Friday he tweeted the support he's received as well as shared some plans he has for his university saying he wants to appoint pro-Muslim scholars, for example.

He also shared his views of the academics who worked in Ghani's regime calling them corrupt "who looted Afghanistan and committed adulteries, were guilty of nepotism and made the country embarrassed with there deeds."

Ghairat set up this Twitter account on Sept 21.