In April 1994 he was nominated as the cabinet director of President Liamine Zeroual, in which post he was in charge of political affairs such as the negotiations with the leaders of the banned Islamic Salvation Front party (FIS) and the preparations for the 1995 presidential election, which the president won in November 1995. His role in as a member of the so-called "eradicator" faction, advocating all out war against the insurgency during the Algerian Civil War that killed more than 150,000 on both sides, earned him criticism from some Western human rights groups. He is particularly associated with the creation in the late 1990s of the GLD citizen militias ("Legitimate Defence Groups", "Groupes de légitime défense").