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Who Will Follow Karzai?
The options are limited. Some may even undermine a decade of progress.
Wall Street Journal By JAVID AHMAD Opinion April 4, 2013
As Hamid Karzai's Afghan presidency enters its final year, it's not too early to consider the question of who will become his successor. The options are limited, with some of the potential candidates threatening to steer the country on a course toward alienation and political unrest, undermining a decade of progress.
Although Mr. Karzai has promised to step down and not seek another term—he is, in any case, constitutionally barred from doing so—he is no lame duck. He alone has managed to rise above Afghanistan's complex ethnic and tribal divisions and will undoubtedly use that advantage to become kingmaker, creating a coalition to support his preferred successor. His recent anti-U.S. tirades suggest he is trying to gain ground with so-called nationalists and portray himself as a man of the people. He has also surrounded himself with a cohort of aides associated with the hard-line Hizb-e-Islami–Hekmatyar group.
A number of possible candidates have already emerged ahead of the April 5, 2014 election. Omar Daudzai, an ethnic Pashtun who is Mr. Karzai's close confidant and ambassador to Pakistan, recently hinted he might run. He has long been touted as Mr. Karzai's preferred choice to replace him and essentially follow in his footsteps.
Qayum Karzai, Mr. Karzai's brother, is another possible candidate. A second brother, Mahmoud Karzai, has renounced his U.S. citizenship to enter Afghan politics, which would only extend Mr. Karzai's family rule.
Others, such as former interior minister Ali Ahmad Jalali, a Pashtun, and Fawzia Koofi, a Tajik member of parliament, have announced their intention to contest the election. Mr. Jalali lacks grassroots support among Afghans, however, and not many would vote in favor of Mrs. Koofi, the lone female contender. Hanif Atmar, a Pashtun reformist leader, and Abdullah Abdullah, who lost to Mr. Karzai in the 2009 elections and now heads a coalition of Afghan opposition parties, could also run or field candidates to represent their parties.
Key leaders from Afghanistan's National Front—the erstwhile Northern Alliance—have said they will stand behind one candidate, most likely Atta Mohammad Noor, a powerful ethnic Tajik who is now the governor of Balkh province. Although Mr. Noor enjoys strong European support, Afghan enthusiasm outside of his northern stronghold is negligible. Mr. Noor's checkered history as a commander in the 1990s civil war and his opposition to negotiations with the Taliban will further complicate his presidential aspirations.
Other aspirants close to Mr. Karzai, such as current education minister Farooq Wardak and the head of the transition commission, Ashraf Ghani, would likely not enter the race until Mr. Karzai has made his preferences known.
Beyond these traditional candidates, another dynamic is at work. Better education and easy access to technology have enabled young Afghans, who account for nearly two-thirds of the population, to become more engaged in current affairs. While Afghan politicians often boast that more than eight million Afghans are now attending school, they rarely address what those students might do after graduation. But politicians can no longer afford to ignore the more than 25% unemployment among Afghans.
A diverse group of young people recently formed a civic-political movement called Afghanistan 1400 to transcend the traditional ethnocentric agendas harbored by most Afghan politicians. And last year Amrullah Saleh, the former head of Afghan intelligence, launched the Green Trend, another political movement that appeals to Afghan youth and sternly opposes reconciliation with the Taliban. Although these nascent movements provide a good platform for Afghan youth to voice their opinions on the country's future, they still lack widespread support. It is unlikely they will have a notable role and impact on the election—this time.
The absence of a viable political alternative has kept Washington and its allies largely reliant on Mr. Karzai, despite his resistance to reforms. Now that this resistance has bolstered Mr. Karzai's influence over the selection of the next president of Afghanistan, responsibility for a credible and orderly transfer of power falls squarely on his shoulders.
Javid Ahmad is a Program Coordinator for Asia at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He is also a consultant to Pentagon's AfPak Hands Program.
A would-be kingmaker keeps Afghanistan guessing
The Economist
MAZAR-I-SHARIF - FEW outside Kabul are as powerful as the governor of Balkh, a province in northern Afghanistan. Win an audience with Atta Mohammad Noor and you are left in little doubt of his status. He receives guests from a golden throne at the end of a long hall hung with chandeliers. His word exerts iron control over the provincial capital, Mazar-i-Sharif, and to Hairatan, the nearby, lucrative border with Uzbekistan.
A former schoolteacher, he is better known as Ustad Atta. Officially beholden to Kabul and appointed by the president, Hamid Karzai, in practice he is his own man, a potentate of the north with huge wealth and carefully consolidated support. Among Afghan provincial governors, he enjoys an unrivalled degree of autonomy. Ahead of a presidential election next year, when Mr Karzai stands down, speculation is growing that Ustad Atta will prove to be the kingmaker.
He is clearly a survivor. An ethnic Tajik, he first fought the Soviet Union after its invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, and then the Taliban, as a part of Ahmad Shah Massoud’s mujahideen. By 2001 and the American unseating of the Taliban, he was one of the most senior Northern Alliance commanders. Able to co-opt or outwit alliance rivals, he knew how to build a power base. By ditching robes and a chest-length beard for Western suits, and swapping tanks for trade, he also won the favour of donors. By 2004 he was governor.
Mazar-i-Sharif has flourished. Far from the Taliban’s southern heartlands, it has suffered less than elsewhere from their violent resurgence. Balkh’s well-irrigated fields grow cotton, grain and fruit, while mills and factories produce flour and textiles. The city itself, long a destination for pilgrims to the reputed tomb of the Prophet’s son-in-law, these days thrives as a transit and supply hub. Just 80km (50 miles) from the Uzbek border, trade is boosted by NATO’s northern supply route, which arrives after snaking across the Central Asian steppe. (The Soviet Union, too, used the city to ship in military kit)
Official imports worth $730m crossed from Uzbekistan last year. More trade beckons. A new 80km spur links the city to Central Asia’s rail network. The local airport will soon welcome flights from Dubai, Turkey and India. All this has stimulated a construction boom. The city centre is currently being dug up to create a subterranean shopping centre.
Bestriding this landscape is Mr Atta. Business rivals claim his wealth comes from taking a cut from every major enterprise. Others say he supports his business ventures with the use of force. He rejects both accusations. But his strength is undeniable. In 2009, in the latest election, he alone among the country’s 34 governors dared to back and help bankroll Mr Karzai’s presidential rival, Abdullah Abdullah.
Mr Karzai has since made veiled criticisms, referring to powerful figures in the north who steal land or withhold customs revenue. But well aware of Mr Atta’s popularity and of the relative calm and prosperity of the province, he has not dared go further by firing the governor.
Now Mr Atta is again in the spotlight. Earlier this year three other heavyweights—Ahmad Zia Masoud, Abdul Rashid Dostum and Mohammad Mohaqeq—said they would back him if he ran for Mr Karzai’s job. He stopped short of announcing his candidacy, but said he would run if other candidates were unsatisfactory.
Soon afterwards, state-run television said Mr Atta had visited Kabul to give “explanations” about his recent remarks. Back in his stronghold he makes light of any rift with the president. “Right now our relations are good. There are no challenges between us,” he says, before stressing the political clout of his northern block and repeating that he would run for the presidency if he saw the country heading towards a crisis next year.
Getting to the top job, however, may prove a step too far. He might well not take to the uncertain world of Kabul intrigues. Nor, for all the momentum he could generate in the north, is it clear he would get crucial backing in the Pushtun-dominated south of Afghanistan. Tellingly, a close friend says he speaks almost no Pushtu.
His ambition may be for a lesser but still powerful position, perhaps as vice-president or as a kingmaker in the election. A Western official says that anyone with political aspirations is running to his door. Expect Ustad Atta’s throne room to be crammed with many more hopefuls over the coming year.
Insurgents shot everybody in their path in deadly Afghan attack, officials say
Associated Press Friday, April 5, 2013
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan officials released harrowing new details on Thursday about an attack in a western province where assailants shot everyone in their path, sending terrified people jumping from windows trying to escape the assailants who killed at least 46 civilians and security forces.
Civilians have frequently been caught up in the fighting between militants and Afghan and U.S.-led combat forces, but the U.N. condemned Wednesday’s attack, saying civilians were deliberately targeted at the courthouse and other government offices in Farah province. Two judges, six prosecutors, administration officers and cleaners working at the site were among the dead, the U.N. said.
Also Thursday, NATO reported that an American F-16 fighter jet had crashed in eastern Afghanistan, killing the U.S. pilot. The U.S.-led military coalition did not release further details about Wednesday’s crash.
“While the cause of the crash is under investigation, initial reporting indicates there was no insurgent activity in the area at the time of the crash,” the coalition said in a statement.
Illustrating other dangers, an airstrike by U.S.-led forces mistakenly killed four policemen and two brothers as their car was being searched at a checkpoint in eastern Afghanistan, an Afghan official said Thursday.
The strike occurred in the Deh Yak district of Ghazni province, according to district chief Fazel Ahmad Toolwak. He said NATO troops were fighting Taliban militants about 10 kilometers (six miles) away, but those killed in the strike were not involved in that battle.
A NATO spokesman, U.S. Army Maj. Adam Wojack, said the international military coalition was looking into the report, adding it “takes all allegations of this type seriously.”
According to a recent U.N. report, 2,754 Afghan civilians were killed last year — down 12 percent from 3,131 killed in 2011. But the number killed in the second half of last year rose, suggesting that Afghanistan is likely to face continued violence as the Taliban and other militants fight for control of the country as foreign forces continue their withdrawal.
The U.N. said the Taliban and other insurgents were responsible for 81 percent of the civilian deaths and injuries last year, while 8 percent were attributed to pro-government forces. The remaining civilian deaths and injuries could not be attributed to either side.
The number of casualties blamed on U.S. and allied forces decreased by 46 percent, with 316 killed and 271 wounded last year. Most were killed in U.S. and NATO airstrikes, although that number, too, dropped by nearly half last year to 126, including 51 children.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in Farah, the capital of the province of the same name near the border with Iran.
The hospital in Farah was so overwhelmed with casualties that helicopters had to ferry some of the wounded to other hospitals in nearby areas.
Provincial Gov. Akram Akhpelwak said two more people had died from the attack, raising the death toll to 55 — 36 civilians, 10 Afghan security forces and nine attackers. More than 100 people also were wounded, he said.
One of the province’s members of parliament, Humaira Ayobi, said one elderly man was found hiding in a bathroom, afraid to come out.
“Farah is a city of sadness,” she said in a telephone call after attending a funeral for some of the victims. “The stores are closed. There’s no traffic in the streets.”
The attack began when two suicide bombers detonated an explosives-laden vehicle near the courthouse, shattering windows and devastating several buildings. Seven others jumped out of the pickup and ran toward the courthouse and attorney general’s office, prompting an eight-hour gunbattle that left many buildings pockmarked from bullets and rocket-propelled grenades.
Ayobi said the attackers went from room to room shooting people, including nearly two dozen people who had taken refuge in a basement. She also said two judges were singled out to be killed in a separate room, and that their bodies were burned.
The attackers were wearing military-style uniforms easily bought in Afghan markets and had painted a pickup in camouflage to disguise it as an Afghan National Army vehicle so it could bypass checkpoints, she said.
An Associated Press photo shows a group of soldiers standing over the body of one of the slain attackers who was lying in a pool of blood and wearing a uniform nearly identical to theirs.
Local officials said Wednesday that they believed the attackers were trying to free 15 Taliban prisoners who were about to stand trial. But Ayobi said the initial target might have been the governor’s compound until heavy security there forced the attackers to redirect themselves to the courthouse.
In New York, the U.N. Security Council condemned the attack “in the strongest terms” and called for the perpetrators, organizers and financiers to be brought to justice. The council reiterated its “serious concern at the threats posed by the Taliban, Al-Qaida and illegal armed groups to the local population, national security forces, international military and international assistance efforts in Afghanistan.”
Bomb Attached To Donkey Kills Afghan Policeman
April 5, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Afghan officials say a bomb attached to a donkey has killed a policeman and wounded three civilians in eastern Afghanistan.
A local government spokesman, Sarhadi Zwak, said the donkey blew up in front of a police security post in the Alingar district of Laghman Province early on April 5.
The spokesman said the bomb was remotely detonated.
He blamed the attack on Taliban militants, which have used donkeys for bomb attacks in the past.
This latest incident comes after a group of Taliban suicide attackers mounted an assault in Farah Province on April 3, killing some 53 people and injuring up to 100.
It was the deadliest militant attack in over a year.
Based on reporting by AFP and AP
Talks with Taliban uncertain after Qatar meet
In a state visit to Qatar, Hamid Karzai hoped to assert Kabul's role in peace talks and normalise relations with Doha.
Aljazeera By Ali M Latifi 04 Apr 2013
Doha, Qatar - When Afghan president Hamid Karzai left talks with Qatari officials in a black Mercedes, his smile may have betrayed a sense of angst with the Gulf state - the host of proposed peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
The Taliban arrived in Qatar's capital 18 months ago, prompting Afghanistan's government to withdraw its ambassador.
Karzai's recent two-day visit, which ended Sunday, was seen as an attempt to mend fences with Qatar and as another step towards possible peace talks with the Taliban.
Journalists were not allowed to attend meetings between the Qataris and the Afghans, and it is unclear exactly what was discussed. Some observers, however, believe the two countries were trying to work out a timetable for direct talks between Karzai and the Taliban.
With US troops set to leave Afghanistan in 2014, Karzai is keen to bolster his position, despite a lack of legitimacy among some Afghans due to pervasive corruption and ineptitude wracking his government. A United Nations survey published in February found that $3.9bn was paid in bribes in 2012.
Turf battles
The Taliban has not formally opened an office in Doha but its leaders, sources said, seem to be enjoying Qatar's luxury accommodations and restaurants.
So far the Qatari government has spent large sums of money on perks and incentives, such as lodging, for Taliban representatives in Doha, said Wahid Monawar, former permanent representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations in Vienna.
But if the group does not show a "desire" to reach a settlement soon, Monawar said, future payments could be put in jeopardy, and the ability of the delegates - some of whom are already under a UN travel ban - to travel across borders could be hindered.
While in Doha, Taliban members have apparently been talking to Western intelligence agencies and other foreign groups, sources said - enraging Karzai, who wants to be at the centre of the process.
"Karzai wants everything to go through the High Peace Council (HPC) [a government-backed group]," Waheed Mozhdah, a former official in the foreign ministry of the Taliban government, told Al Jazeera during Karzai's trip to Doha.
The president's desire to be front and centre in talks could be hampering negotiations, according to an Afghan official involved in organising talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "The idea that the HPC has the ability bring the Taliban to the negotiating table is mistaken," he said.
The Karzai government, according to former Afghan MP Daoud Sultanzoy, "lacks moral legitimacy in the eyes of the people". A peace deal in his government's dwindling days would be an important boon for Karzai's legacy.
Road through Islamabad
But for the Taliban, who saw themselves as a legitimate government attacked by US-backed forces in 2001, discussions with the Karzai government could hurt them on the grounds on which they say their resistance is based. Sultanzoy said the talks could "signal an acceptance by the Taliban of elements that go against all their rhetoric".
An acknowledgement of the Karzai government would be especially detrimental to the image of a Taliban that Mozhdah said believe the West and its "puppet regime" have been "broken in the decade-long war".
Taliban fighters are in no hurry to talk, as they believe time is on their side in the drawn-out counter-insurgency battle. For Karzai, however, presidential elections scheduled just months after the international troop withdrawal planned for December 2014 means time is of the essence.
"Karzai's biggest enemy right now is time," Monawar told Al Jazeera. "Time is not on his side, whether he likes it or not."
Time is less important for the Taliban. "Part of the agreement between the Qataris and the Taliban was that they would not be kicked out [of Qatar], even if nothing comes from discussions [with Karzai's government]," said Mozhdah.
Despite wrangling in Qatar, many Afghans believe the road to a long-term peace runs through Islamabad. "The Taliban are being manuevered by the Pakistani side," said Sultanzoy. "Most of the Arab nations are friendly to the Pakistani regime."
For many in Afghanistan, Karzai's talks in the Gulf or the Taliban's forays in London, Berlin or Paris are of little value until Islamabad is properly addressed.
Senior Taliban leader detained in S. Afghanistan
KABUL, April 5 (Xinhua) -- A senior Taliban leader was arrested Friday in an operation conducted by Afghan forces and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in southern province of Helmand, the ISAF forces confirmed.
"An Afghan and coalition security force arrested a senior Taliban leader and detained one other insurgent during an operation in Nahr-e Saraj district, Helmand province, today," the ISAF said in a press release.
"The leader is accused of commanding a cell of fighters responsible for conducting attacks against Afghan and coalition forces. He allegedly provides weapons for use in insurgency operations throughout the district, and is believed to be heavily involved in improvised explosive device operations," the release added without revealing the name of man.
In addition, the joint forces also detained a Taliban facilitator and several other insurgents in different provinces earlier Friday, the release noted.
The Taliban insurgent group, which has been waging an insurgency for more than one decade, has yet to make comments.
The security forces have recently intensified operations across the country as spring and summer known as the fighting season is drawing near.
Russia not to have military bases in Afghanistan: official
MOSCOW, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Russia would not consider deploying military bases in Afghanistan, Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said on Friday.
Commenting on reports that the possibility of creating military maintenance bases in Afghanistan was discussed between Russia and NATO, Antonov said the establishment of any Russian military bases in the Afghan territory was "out of the question."
Russia has been willing to help the Afghan government improve its armed forces, Antonov said, adding stability in the Asian country is necessary to NATO members, Russia and its Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) partners.
The official also expressed Russia's willingness to assist both NATO- led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and "Afghan friends."
According to him, the cooperation potential between NATO and CSTO countries in addressing stability and security challenges in Asia was huge.
Afghanistan is due to take over the security duties from U.S. and NATO forces by the end of 2014. The Afghan National Security Forces have already taken full control of areas, where about 75 percent of the population lives.
Under U.S. President Barack Obama's withdrawal plan, 33,000 U.S. troops already pulled out of Afghanistan in September last year and another 34,000 will return home within one year.
Afghanistan says Pakistan putting conditions on Taliban peace effort, relations at new low
Associated Press April 04, 2013
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan accused Pakistan on Thursday of placing unacceptable conditions on efforts to bring peace to the country after nearly 12 years of war, the latest in a series of barbed exchanges that has sunk relations between the two neighbors to a new low.
A breakdown in ties threatens to hinder — or even paralyze — attempts to lure the Taliban to the negotiating table. That's a key goal of the United States and its allies as they work for a peaceful solution in Afghanistan ahead of the final pullout of foreign combat forces in 20 months.
Afghanistan and its international backers consider Pakistan a critical player in bringing the Taliban and other militant groups into peace talks. Pakistan holds dozens of Taliban prisoners and has been accused of backing the insurgents in an effort to be able to exert influence in Afghanistan after foreign troops leave.
A senior Pakistan official said, however, that Islamabad remained committed to reconciliation.
That's why Pakistan recently released 26 Afghan Taliban prisoners from its jails, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. Pakistan remains in contact with members of the Taliban who have been empowered to talk about reconciliation, he said.
A failure to bring peace could endanger the stability of Afghanistan and much of the region, including Pakistan, which is fighting its own domestic Taliban insurgency.
"We have told the Pakistanis that they should support peace in Afghanistan not only for the sake of the Afghan people, but for their own sake," Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai told The Associated Press in an interview on Thursday.
He said Afghanistan wants a close, broad, strategic relationship with Pakistan, "but one between two equal independent sovereign states, nothing less."
Pakistan, Mosazai said, is constantly shifting its position. Islamabad should be "supporting the Afghan peace process in a more meaningful way and having an independent bilateral relationship that is not based on a delusional desire to control Afghanistan."
So far, Afghanistan has been unsuccessful in getting militants to negotiate peace and needs Pakistan's help. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has urged the Taliban to work out a political resolution to the war and has backed a plan for the Taliban to open an office in the Gulf state of Qatar.
Publicly, the Taliban have long refused to speak directly with Karzai or his government, which they view as a puppet of foreign powers. Afghanistan thinks Pakistan has the influence to get them to talk so it's not helpful when the two capitals are feuding.
Relations between the two countries have been hot and cold in recent years.
Afghanistan often blames Pakistan for supporting insurgents who are fighting both NATO troops and government forces. Afghan officials also claim Pakistan has had a role in major attacks and suicide bombings. They said a suicide bombing that killed a former Afghan president and leader of the government-appointed peace council in September 2011 was planned in Quetta, Pakistan.
"It is not a tempest in a teapot," said Michael O'Hanlon, a fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution. "An increasing number of Afghans have figured out how much of a hand Islamabad has had in all the violence over the years.
"If there is a silver lining, it's that Islamabad needs to know that the world has figured them out and that they can't continue their double game indefinitely and get away with it. Some Pakistanis know that already. Many still need to understand it."
Relations between Islamabad and Kabul had been improving in recent months.
Karzai had lauded Pakistan's decision to work for peace and help Afghanistan reach out to the Taliban, whose leaders are thought to be based in Pakistan.
In July, when British Prime Minister David Cameron visited Kabul and met with Karzai and the Pakistani prime minister, they pledged to work together to eliminate terrorism and agreed that peace in Afghanistan would help improve security in Pakistan.
In October, Salahuddin Rabbani, the current head of the peace council and the son of the ex-Afghan president who was slain, visited Islamabad and presented Pakistan with a plan to bring peace to his country by 2015. That plan included the active participation of Pakistan.
A month later, Pakistan's foreign minister gave the Afghans a draft agreement for a strategic partnership and Pakistani army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani made a visit to Kabul. That visit further bolstered Afghan hopes that Islamabad was committed to peace and good relations.
NATO, Afghanistan and Pakistan signed a deal for better military coordination on the border, and equally important, Afghan officials said Kayani not only indicated support for the Afghan peace plan, but said that it should be accelerated from 2015 to 2013.
At a February meeting in London, the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan further cemented their relationship. At the meeting, it was announced that Afghanistan and Pakistan had committed themselves to trying to achieve peace within six months.
But Afghan officials said the meeting was not as rosy at it seemed.
They said Islamabad demanded three preconditions: That Afghanistan limit its relations with India — Pakistan's archenemy; reach a domestic consensus on peace; and immediately sign a strategic partnership with Pakistan.
Instead of the preconditions, the Afghans said they were expecting Pakistan to take its own steps toward fostering peace talks, including the release of the former No. 2 Taliban leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. Afghan officials hoped that Baradar and other imprisoned members of the Taliban can help bring the Taliban to the peace talks. In January, Pakistan's foreign secretary had said Islamabad would eventually release all Taliban prisoners.
"Pakistan is continuing with delaying tactics in their support of the peace process by demanding a supposed intra-Afghan consensus on the peace process at a time that a national consensus to end the violence is the strongest it has ever been for the past decade," Mosazai told the AP.
Western officials have said that the Afghan government was too optimistic about what Pakistan was ready to give, especially on the release of Baradar, and that they should show patience.
Pakistan has denied issuing preconditions, but Afghan officials say recent comments show otherwise — including some made by unnamed Pakistani foreign ministry officials that Karzai was an impediment to peace.
"We believe that relations between the two countries are deteriorating," Karzai spokesman Aimal Faizi said recently. "Enough is enough."
In Islamabad, the senior Pakistani official stressed that Pakistan was supporting reconciliation. As a way to kick start the peace process, the official said Pakistan has suggested a meeting attended by the Taliban and representatives from Afghanistan's multiple ethnic groups. He insisted that the meeting was not aimed at excluding Karzai from the process, but rather to make sure that the Afghan president didn't cut out his own political opposition.
Further complicating efforts to gain traction on a peace process is internal fighting among members of the Taliban, the official said. He said there was an ongoing debate between two factions of the Taliban: Those who reject talks when they are close to seeing international forces leave and a weaker Afghan force take charge and others who see reconciliation as a way to regain political power in Afghanistan.
AP Intelligence writer Kimberly Dozier contributed from Islamabad.
More poor Afghan girls now go to school
KABUL, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Despite economic problems and traditional barriers, more and more Afghan girls are now attending classes in their villages to secure their future.
"I am very happy to get education and attend classes in my village," Najiba, 13, said when Xinhua visited her recently in her school in Qalai Gadar village.
Now in Grade 6, Najiba who like most Afghans go by only one name, said that her father and brothers did not want her to go to school where all the teachers, except for one, are males.
Built by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) with the financial support from Hollywood film star Angelina Jolie in Qalai Gadar, a rural community in Qara Bagh district some 40 km north of Afghan capital Kabul, the school is one of the few primary schools providing education to local residents there.
The two-story building, which opened in 2012, accommodates around 400 pupils mostly girls at two shifts from 10 nearby villages.
In this conservative country where tribalism and traditionalism are deeply-rooted and many parents, particularly in rural areas, prefer their girls to stay at home, the Qalai Gadar Primary Girl School has defied tradition and welcomes young girls to its classrooms.
"My father and brothers do not want me to go to school. They said that there is only one female teacher in the school and it does not look good for girls to be seen there,"Najiba said.
Even at her young age, Najiba said she wants to be a medical doctor so that she can help treat her countrymen.
"In the past we studied in open, but today I am happy that I, along with my two sisters and four brothers, are now learning our lessons inside a building," Yasmin, 14,another student of Grade 6, said.
The majority of the students in the school are the offspring of former refugees who fled the conflict and live in neighboring states of Pakistan and Iran during Taliban's six-year reign which collapsed in late 2001.
During its brutal reign, the Taliban, which was ousted by the U. S.-led coalition military campaign 12 years ago, had outlawed schools for girls and confined women to their houses.
A few months ago, the Taliban attacked a young Pakistani girl who espoused education for girls. The young girl who has survived the attack, vowed to continue her advocacy.
Although the Qalai Gadar School is offering only elementary education, or up to Grade 6, school headmaster Gul Rahman Ayaz said that efforts are now being made to upgrade the school into a high school.
However, Ayaz said that he is not very optimistic about the outcome of their plan.
"One of our main problems is the extreme scarcity of female teachers here. Presently we have 12 teachers here but only one of them is female and the remaining 11 others are males which creates cultural problem," Ayaz said, adding that the lack of female teachers is one of the reasons why parents are reluctant to send their daughters to the school.
Located in a slum neighborhood, the Qalai Gadar Primary Girl School is a suitable education center for the children of the poor community. But the school lacks flowing water, electricity, textbooks and school supplies, amenities that the poor pupils do not have.
The whole school has just a simple manual pumping water facility to produce drinking water for the students and their teachers.
Ayaz said that because of lack of budget, the school could not afford to buy a power generator that could be used to pump water to a water tank.
Some 8.4 million students, 39 percent of them girls, now go to school in the post-Taliban Afghanistan, according to officials.
Women Professionals Form Body for Political Representation
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat Thursday, 04 April 2013
Women lawmakers, civil society members, media professionals, and government staff have formed a movement to back women's rights in the upcoming presidential election, beginning with a proposal to parliament on securing gender quotas for women candidates.
Supported by the ministry of women's affairs and the gender committee of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), the group is aiming to raise the profile of women's political rights with the backdrop of the 2014 election.
The group is expected to give parliament a proposal next Monday which outlines how to protect women's rights including a demand that gender quotas are introduced in the presidential, parliamentarian, and provincial council elections – with as many as 50 percent of positions allocated to women or that only half the number of votes are required for a female candidate compared to a male candidate.
It also suggests that women candidates should be given funding assistance from the Ministry of Women's Affairs and if they are not elected the funds should be repaid back to the ministry.
"We don't want our rights to fall victim on the path of misdeeds. It is essential to have this proposal considered in the election law," said MP Shukria Barikzai.
"Our intention to put this proposal together was nobody's viewpoint. The only goal was to give more opportunities to the innovative and brave women [of Afghanistan]," MP Farida Nikzad said.
The Foundation for Free and Fair Elections of Afghanistan (FEFA) welcomed the proposal and called on parliament to give it some attention when considering the election law.
"We welcome this initiative by women. There should be more facilities for women considering the current situation in the country because women do not have the same amount of opportunities as have men," said FEFA executive director Jandad Spinghar.
Women rights activists urged that the IEC should include more women in their structure, to which IEC gender committee responded that there are a number of women employed temporarily.
"The election commission has constantly encouraged the role of women in the elections, and it should consider the role of women in the commission's temporary staff," said Farida Khenjani, advisor to IEC's gender committee.
The presidential and provincial council elections will be held April 5, 2014.
Insecurity and lack of sound population data are said to be the main challenges ahead of ensuring a fair and transparent poll.
New Zealand withdraws its troops from Afghanistan, grants Afghan interpreters residency
Associated Press Friday, April 5, 2013
BAMIYAN, Afghanistan - New Zealand has withdrawn its small contingent of troops from Afghanistan.
The South Pacific nation had stationed about 145 soldiers in central Bamiyan province since 2003. Ten of its soldiers died during the conflict.
The withdrawal came about five months earlier than initially planned. The U.S. and its allies plan to withdraw all remaining troops by the end of 2014.
In a ceremony Thursday, New Zealand lowered its flag and opened a memorial to commemorate both the New Zealand troops and Afghan security forces who died in the province.
About 95 Afghan interpreters and their family members who worked with the Kiwis will this month move to New Zealand, where they have been granted residency.
New Zealand will continue to station 27 planning and intelligence personnel in Kabul.
Shanghai Should Work with US on Afghanistan: Analysts
TOLOnews.com By Anisa Shahid Thursday, 04 April 2013
Afghan political analysts suggested Thursday that the support of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) will only be advantageous to Afghanistan if it works with the US and Nato and not against.
The analysts were commenting to TOLOnews on the report from Chinese press agency Xinhua which said that the Chinese foreign ministry met with its Russian and Pakistani counterparts last night to discuss the crisis in Afghanistan and how the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation might help.
The diplomats from the three countries met Wednesday evening in the Chinese capital Beijing to discuss their concerns about Afghanistan, saying the country's security is important for the region and directly affects all of the surrounding, Xinhua said.
The SCO was formed in 2001 by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan to address matters of Eurasian security.
But at least one Afghan analyst believes its agenda is different to that of the US which may cause problems.
"This organisation basically stands against the United States and it acts with a sole purpose. If Shanghai is to play an alternative role and compete, it will bring losses to Afghanistan," said Afghan political analyst Salih Mohammad Rigestani. "But if Shanghai is to play a role for peace – which is a political act – in cooperation with the United States, it would be possible."
"We shouldn't forget that the United States will not give its role in Afghanistan to Shanghai, and also Shanghai cannot play an alternative role," he added.
While the Xinhua report said the three countries agreed on further endevours to provide peace and sustainability in Afghanistan, the Afghan analysts described the move as skewed because it does not sufficiently address the role of Pakistan.
"Those who attended the Shanghai meeting should put pressure on Pakistan and not simply say that the situation in Afghanistan has a direct effect over their countries. They have to also talk about Pakistan," said political analyst Gen Atiqullah Rahimi.
"If Pakistan leaves off interfering and starts helping peace in Afghanistan, it will do nobody any more harm and also security will be provided in the country [Afghanistan]," he added.
Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran all have observer status in the SCO.
Those Who Plant Mines Will Go to Hell: Mojaddedi
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat Thursday, 04 April 2013
Those who place roadside bombs and other types of improvised explosives will go to hell for their deeds, High Peace Council member Sibghatullah Mojaddedi said Wednesday, drawing similarities between the makeshift bombs and suicide bombing.
Speaking at an event for the occasion of International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, Mojaddedi said that those who plant mines will go to hell in the afterlife the same as suicide bombers, adding that Afghanistan needs further international assistance in clear the mines.
"Those who commit suicide think that they will go to the Janat [paradise], but in fact they go to hell because committing suicide, when you harm others and destroy others, is not permitted in Islam," Mojadidi said at the Loya Jirga tent in Kabul. Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are said to be responsible for death of more people in Afghanistan than any other cause, with most of the devices being planted in south and east parts of the country.
As many as 80 percent of casualties among civilians are from roadside mines over the past few years, reports suggest.
The United Nations figures show that 21,000 farms, 2,200 villages, and 121 districts across Afghanistan have been cleared from mines thus far with 1.2 million mines and 16 million explosive devices destroyed by the mine action organisations.
However, there are still 4,900 areas across Afghanistan contain mines.
"Currently there are 12,000 Afghans delivering all aspects of mine action throughout the country. Most of them are employed by five Afghan NGOs and two intentional NGOs...These people have been working for 25 years clearing mines from Afghanistan," said Abigail Hartley, Program Manager of UN Mine Action Service (UMAS) in Kabul.
Expressing her respect for the work of the deminers, Hartley said: "The collective achievement of Afghan government ministries, Afghan NGOs, international NGOs, the UN, and donors to the programme is outstanding. You will never ever be in a room and hear more success than we are claiming here today."
"It is practically fitting today to acknowledge the considerable achievements of the mines action programme of Afghanistan supported by UNMAS which is already done so much to clear the country of mines and create an awareness of mines that will have saved lives of many thousands of people," said Mark Bowden, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
The presence of mines in some parts of Afghanistan have held back implementation of development projects.
"The Afghan government should be as responsible as the donors [in removing the mines] because implementation of large and infrastructure projects will be hard without the mine action projects," said Mohammad Shahab Hakimi, an Afghan mine action official.
Despite many efforts to remove the mines, tens of Afghans lose their lives or are disabled every day as a result of IEDs or unexploded ordinances across Afghanistan.
Three Ministers Receive MP Vote of Confidence
TOLOnews.com By Rafi Sediqi Thursday, 04 April 2013
Lawmakers have given a vote of confidence to three government ministers of the 11 whose ministries are under scrutiny for poor budget management two years ago.
The ministers of education Farouq Wardak, commerce and industry Anwar-ul-Haq Ahadi, and counter-narcotics Ahmad Moqbel will keep their positions after receiving the vote of confidence on Wednesday.
The three appeared before parliament on Wednesday, along with the minister of energy and water Mohammad Ismail Khan, to explain the reasons for their ministries' failure to spend more than 50 percent of their respective development budgets in the Persian year 1390 (March 2011-March 2012).
The vote of confidence for Ismail Khan was deemed too "vague" to be upheld and a second vote will be taken at a later date, according to parliamentary officials.
However, some of the MPs rejected the decision for a re-vote on Ismail Khan, saying that the minister had not received sufficient votes and that should be the final outcome on the matter.
"Every minister who didn't receive parliament's vote of confidence – like the ministers who were disqualified today – should be disqualified. There should be no disagreement about it," said MP Mohammad Naim Lalai Hameedzai on Wednesday. MP Shukria Barikzai scoffed at the decision to have another vote for Ismail Khan.
"If the parliament decides that the ministers who received a low vote are not disqualified, it will be then a masterstroke that no parliament in the world has ever done," she said Wednesday. The other ministers who were questioned by the lawmakers on Monday – economics, mines, and information and culture – will also be voted on at a later date.
Those who were questioned by parliament on Wednesday repeated what the ministers said on Monday: that they never received most of the funds allocated in their development budgets therefore they could not spend more than 50 percent of that budget.
"If the funds assured by the donors had been provided to this ministry, our levels of budget expenditure would have been higher," education minister Wardak said. "If we calculate [the percentage spent] based on the funds that were provided to us, then we spent more than 60 percent of the budget."
Counter narcotics minister Moqbel claimed that his ministry spent a large amount of the budget it had.
"We were able to spend a great amount of our budget, but despite a number of donors assuring us of funds and it was even put in the budget, the funds were not provided to us," he said.
Minister of energy and water Ismail Khan said: "Out of all the budget in our hands, a large amount was spent in development projects; however, a few million dollars which was in the budget was not provided to us by the donors."
Finance minister Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal, who has been present at both the Monday and Wednesday parliamentary sessions, supported the reasons given by the ministers saying that most of the donors have reversed their assurances on the promised funds.
He told the lawmakers that the budgets were estimated based on donor assurances, but many of the donors including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank did not deliver the full amount of their assurances in 1390 and 1391.
The remaining four ministers to face parliament – higher education, interior, defence, and urban development – are to be questioned by the lawmakers on Saturday.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
The options are limited. Some may even undermine a decade of progress.
Wall Street Journal By JAVID AHMAD Opinion April 4, 2013
As Hamid Karzai's Afghan presidency enters its final year, it's not too early to consider the question of who will become his successor. The options are limited, with some of the potential candidates threatening to steer the country on a course toward alienation and political unrest, undermining a decade of progress.
Although Mr. Karzai has promised to step down and not seek another term—he is, in any case, constitutionally barred from doing so—he is no lame duck. He alone has managed to rise above Afghanistan's complex ethnic and tribal divisions and will undoubtedly use that advantage to become kingmaker, creating a coalition to support his preferred successor. His recent anti-U.S. tirades suggest he is trying to gain ground with so-called nationalists and portray himself as a man of the people. He has also surrounded himself with a cohort of aides associated with the hard-line Hizb-e-Islami–Hekmatyar group.
A number of possible candidates have already emerged ahead of the April 5, 2014 election. Omar Daudzai, an ethnic Pashtun who is Mr. Karzai's close confidant and ambassador to Pakistan, recently hinted he might run. He has long been touted as Mr. Karzai's preferred choice to replace him and essentially follow in his footsteps.
Qayum Karzai, Mr. Karzai's brother, is another possible candidate. A second brother, Mahmoud Karzai, has renounced his U.S. citizenship to enter Afghan politics, which would only extend Mr. Karzai's family rule.
Others, such as former interior minister Ali Ahmad Jalali, a Pashtun, and Fawzia Koofi, a Tajik member of parliament, have announced their intention to contest the election. Mr. Jalali lacks grassroots support among Afghans, however, and not many would vote in favor of Mrs. Koofi, the lone female contender. Hanif Atmar, a Pashtun reformist leader, and Abdullah Abdullah, who lost to Mr. Karzai in the 2009 elections and now heads a coalition of Afghan opposition parties, could also run or field candidates to represent their parties.
Key leaders from Afghanistan's National Front—the erstwhile Northern Alliance—have said they will stand behind one candidate, most likely Atta Mohammad Noor, a powerful ethnic Tajik who is now the governor of Balkh province. Although Mr. Noor enjoys strong European support, Afghan enthusiasm outside of his northern stronghold is negligible. Mr. Noor's checkered history as a commander in the 1990s civil war and his opposition to negotiations with the Taliban will further complicate his presidential aspirations.
Other aspirants close to Mr. Karzai, such as current education minister Farooq Wardak and the head of the transition commission, Ashraf Ghani, would likely not enter the race until Mr. Karzai has made his preferences known.
Beyond these traditional candidates, another dynamic is at work. Better education and easy access to technology have enabled young Afghans, who account for nearly two-thirds of the population, to become more engaged in current affairs. While Afghan politicians often boast that more than eight million Afghans are now attending school, they rarely address what those students might do after graduation. But politicians can no longer afford to ignore the more than 25% unemployment among Afghans.
A diverse group of young people recently formed a civic-political movement called Afghanistan 1400 to transcend the traditional ethnocentric agendas harbored by most Afghan politicians. And last year Amrullah Saleh, the former head of Afghan intelligence, launched the Green Trend, another political movement that appeals to Afghan youth and sternly opposes reconciliation with the Taliban. Although these nascent movements provide a good platform for Afghan youth to voice their opinions on the country's future, they still lack widespread support. It is unlikely they will have a notable role and impact on the election—this time.
The absence of a viable political alternative has kept Washington and its allies largely reliant on Mr. Karzai, despite his resistance to reforms. Now that this resistance has bolstered Mr. Karzai's influence over the selection of the next president of Afghanistan, responsibility for a credible and orderly transfer of power falls squarely on his shoulders.
Javid Ahmad is a Program Coordinator for Asia at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He is also a consultant to Pentagon's AfPak Hands Program.
A would-be kingmaker keeps Afghanistan guessing
The Economist
MAZAR-I-SHARIF - FEW outside Kabul are as powerful as the governor of Balkh, a province in northern Afghanistan. Win an audience with Atta Mohammad Noor and you are left in little doubt of his status. He receives guests from a golden throne at the end of a long hall hung with chandeliers. His word exerts iron control over the provincial capital, Mazar-i-Sharif, and to Hairatan, the nearby, lucrative border with Uzbekistan.
A former schoolteacher, he is better known as Ustad Atta. Officially beholden to Kabul and appointed by the president, Hamid Karzai, in practice he is his own man, a potentate of the north with huge wealth and carefully consolidated support. Among Afghan provincial governors, he enjoys an unrivalled degree of autonomy. Ahead of a presidential election next year, when Mr Karzai stands down, speculation is growing that Ustad Atta will prove to be the kingmaker.
He is clearly a survivor. An ethnic Tajik, he first fought the Soviet Union after its invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, and then the Taliban, as a part of Ahmad Shah Massoud’s mujahideen. By 2001 and the American unseating of the Taliban, he was one of the most senior Northern Alliance commanders. Able to co-opt or outwit alliance rivals, he knew how to build a power base. By ditching robes and a chest-length beard for Western suits, and swapping tanks for trade, he also won the favour of donors. By 2004 he was governor.
Mazar-i-Sharif has flourished. Far from the Taliban’s southern heartlands, it has suffered less than elsewhere from their violent resurgence. Balkh’s well-irrigated fields grow cotton, grain and fruit, while mills and factories produce flour and textiles. The city itself, long a destination for pilgrims to the reputed tomb of the Prophet’s son-in-law, these days thrives as a transit and supply hub. Just 80km (50 miles) from the Uzbek border, trade is boosted by NATO’s northern supply route, which arrives after snaking across the Central Asian steppe. (The Soviet Union, too, used the city to ship in military kit)
Official imports worth $730m crossed from Uzbekistan last year. More trade beckons. A new 80km spur links the city to Central Asia’s rail network. The local airport will soon welcome flights from Dubai, Turkey and India. All this has stimulated a construction boom. The city centre is currently being dug up to create a subterranean shopping centre.
Bestriding this landscape is Mr Atta. Business rivals claim his wealth comes from taking a cut from every major enterprise. Others say he supports his business ventures with the use of force. He rejects both accusations. But his strength is undeniable. In 2009, in the latest election, he alone among the country’s 34 governors dared to back and help bankroll Mr Karzai’s presidential rival, Abdullah Abdullah.
Mr Karzai has since made veiled criticisms, referring to powerful figures in the north who steal land or withhold customs revenue. But well aware of Mr Atta’s popularity and of the relative calm and prosperity of the province, he has not dared go further by firing the governor.
Now Mr Atta is again in the spotlight. Earlier this year three other heavyweights—Ahmad Zia Masoud, Abdul Rashid Dostum and Mohammad Mohaqeq—said they would back him if he ran for Mr Karzai’s job. He stopped short of announcing his candidacy, but said he would run if other candidates were unsatisfactory.
Soon afterwards, state-run television said Mr Atta had visited Kabul to give “explanations” about his recent remarks. Back in his stronghold he makes light of any rift with the president. “Right now our relations are good. There are no challenges between us,” he says, before stressing the political clout of his northern block and repeating that he would run for the presidency if he saw the country heading towards a crisis next year.
Getting to the top job, however, may prove a step too far. He might well not take to the uncertain world of Kabul intrigues. Nor, for all the momentum he could generate in the north, is it clear he would get crucial backing in the Pushtun-dominated south of Afghanistan. Tellingly, a close friend says he speaks almost no Pushtu.
His ambition may be for a lesser but still powerful position, perhaps as vice-president or as a kingmaker in the election. A Western official says that anyone with political aspirations is running to his door. Expect Ustad Atta’s throne room to be crammed with many more hopefuls over the coming year.
Insurgents shot everybody in their path in deadly Afghan attack, officials say
Associated Press Friday, April 5, 2013
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan officials released harrowing new details on Thursday about an attack in a western province where assailants shot everyone in their path, sending terrified people jumping from windows trying to escape the assailants who killed at least 46 civilians and security forces.
Civilians have frequently been caught up in the fighting between militants and Afghan and U.S.-led combat forces, but the U.N. condemned Wednesday’s attack, saying civilians were deliberately targeted at the courthouse and other government offices in Farah province. Two judges, six prosecutors, administration officers and cleaners working at the site were among the dead, the U.N. said.
Also Thursday, NATO reported that an American F-16 fighter jet had crashed in eastern Afghanistan, killing the U.S. pilot. The U.S.-led military coalition did not release further details about Wednesday’s crash.
“While the cause of the crash is under investigation, initial reporting indicates there was no insurgent activity in the area at the time of the crash,” the coalition said in a statement.
Illustrating other dangers, an airstrike by U.S.-led forces mistakenly killed four policemen and two brothers as their car was being searched at a checkpoint in eastern Afghanistan, an Afghan official said Thursday.
The strike occurred in the Deh Yak district of Ghazni province, according to district chief Fazel Ahmad Toolwak. He said NATO troops were fighting Taliban militants about 10 kilometers (six miles) away, but those killed in the strike were not involved in that battle.
A NATO spokesman, U.S. Army Maj. Adam Wojack, said the international military coalition was looking into the report, adding it “takes all allegations of this type seriously.”
According to a recent U.N. report, 2,754 Afghan civilians were killed last year — down 12 percent from 3,131 killed in 2011. But the number killed in the second half of last year rose, suggesting that Afghanistan is likely to face continued violence as the Taliban and other militants fight for control of the country as foreign forces continue their withdrawal.
The U.N. said the Taliban and other insurgents were responsible for 81 percent of the civilian deaths and injuries last year, while 8 percent were attributed to pro-government forces. The remaining civilian deaths and injuries could not be attributed to either side.
The number of casualties blamed on U.S. and allied forces decreased by 46 percent, with 316 killed and 271 wounded last year. Most were killed in U.S. and NATO airstrikes, although that number, too, dropped by nearly half last year to 126, including 51 children.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in Farah, the capital of the province of the same name near the border with Iran.
The hospital in Farah was so overwhelmed with casualties that helicopters had to ferry some of the wounded to other hospitals in nearby areas.
Provincial Gov. Akram Akhpelwak said two more people had died from the attack, raising the death toll to 55 — 36 civilians, 10 Afghan security forces and nine attackers. More than 100 people also were wounded, he said.
One of the province’s members of parliament, Humaira Ayobi, said one elderly man was found hiding in a bathroom, afraid to come out.
“Farah is a city of sadness,” she said in a telephone call after attending a funeral for some of the victims. “The stores are closed. There’s no traffic in the streets.”
The attack began when two suicide bombers detonated an explosives-laden vehicle near the courthouse, shattering windows and devastating several buildings. Seven others jumped out of the pickup and ran toward the courthouse and attorney general’s office, prompting an eight-hour gunbattle that left many buildings pockmarked from bullets and rocket-propelled grenades.
Ayobi said the attackers went from room to room shooting people, including nearly two dozen people who had taken refuge in a basement. She also said two judges were singled out to be killed in a separate room, and that their bodies were burned.
The attackers were wearing military-style uniforms easily bought in Afghan markets and had painted a pickup in camouflage to disguise it as an Afghan National Army vehicle so it could bypass checkpoints, she said.
An Associated Press photo shows a group of soldiers standing over the body of one of the slain attackers who was lying in a pool of blood and wearing a uniform nearly identical to theirs.
Local officials said Wednesday that they believed the attackers were trying to free 15 Taliban prisoners who were about to stand trial. But Ayobi said the initial target might have been the governor’s compound until heavy security there forced the attackers to redirect themselves to the courthouse.
In New York, the U.N. Security Council condemned the attack “in the strongest terms” and called for the perpetrators, organizers and financiers to be brought to justice. The council reiterated its “serious concern at the threats posed by the Taliban, Al-Qaida and illegal armed groups to the local population, national security forces, international military and international assistance efforts in Afghanistan.”
Bomb Attached To Donkey Kills Afghan Policeman
April 5, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Afghan officials say a bomb attached to a donkey has killed a policeman and wounded three civilians in eastern Afghanistan.
A local government spokesman, Sarhadi Zwak, said the donkey blew up in front of a police security post in the Alingar district of Laghman Province early on April 5.
The spokesman said the bomb was remotely detonated.
He blamed the attack on Taliban militants, which have used donkeys for bomb attacks in the past.
This latest incident comes after a group of Taliban suicide attackers mounted an assault in Farah Province on April 3, killing some 53 people and injuring up to 100.
It was the deadliest militant attack in over a year.
Based on reporting by AFP and AP
Talks with Taliban uncertain after Qatar meet
In a state visit to Qatar, Hamid Karzai hoped to assert Kabul's role in peace talks and normalise relations with Doha.
Aljazeera By Ali M Latifi 04 Apr 2013
Doha, Qatar - When Afghan president Hamid Karzai left talks with Qatari officials in a black Mercedes, his smile may have betrayed a sense of angst with the Gulf state - the host of proposed peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
The Taliban arrived in Qatar's capital 18 months ago, prompting Afghanistan's government to withdraw its ambassador.
Karzai's recent two-day visit, which ended Sunday, was seen as an attempt to mend fences with Qatar and as another step towards possible peace talks with the Taliban.
Journalists were not allowed to attend meetings between the Qataris and the Afghans, and it is unclear exactly what was discussed. Some observers, however, believe the two countries were trying to work out a timetable for direct talks between Karzai and the Taliban.
With US troops set to leave Afghanistan in 2014, Karzai is keen to bolster his position, despite a lack of legitimacy among some Afghans due to pervasive corruption and ineptitude wracking his government. A United Nations survey published in February found that $3.9bn was paid in bribes in 2012.
Turf battles
The Taliban has not formally opened an office in Doha but its leaders, sources said, seem to be enjoying Qatar's luxury accommodations and restaurants.
So far the Qatari government has spent large sums of money on perks and incentives, such as lodging, for Taliban representatives in Doha, said Wahid Monawar, former permanent representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations in Vienna.
But if the group does not show a "desire" to reach a settlement soon, Monawar said, future payments could be put in jeopardy, and the ability of the delegates - some of whom are already under a UN travel ban - to travel across borders could be hindered.
While in Doha, Taliban members have apparently been talking to Western intelligence agencies and other foreign groups, sources said - enraging Karzai, who wants to be at the centre of the process.
"Karzai wants everything to go through the High Peace Council (HPC) [a government-backed group]," Waheed Mozhdah, a former official in the foreign ministry of the Taliban government, told Al Jazeera during Karzai's trip to Doha.
The president's desire to be front and centre in talks could be hampering negotiations, according to an Afghan official involved in organising talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "The idea that the HPC has the ability bring the Taliban to the negotiating table is mistaken," he said.
The Karzai government, according to former Afghan MP Daoud Sultanzoy, "lacks moral legitimacy in the eyes of the people". A peace deal in his government's dwindling days would be an important boon for Karzai's legacy.
Road through Islamabad
But for the Taliban, who saw themselves as a legitimate government attacked by US-backed forces in 2001, discussions with the Karzai government could hurt them on the grounds on which they say their resistance is based. Sultanzoy said the talks could "signal an acceptance by the Taliban of elements that go against all their rhetoric".
An acknowledgement of the Karzai government would be especially detrimental to the image of a Taliban that Mozhdah said believe the West and its "puppet regime" have been "broken in the decade-long war".
Taliban fighters are in no hurry to talk, as they believe time is on their side in the drawn-out counter-insurgency battle. For Karzai, however, presidential elections scheduled just months after the international troop withdrawal planned for December 2014 means time is of the essence.
"Karzai's biggest enemy right now is time," Monawar told Al Jazeera. "Time is not on his side, whether he likes it or not."
Time is less important for the Taliban. "Part of the agreement between the Qataris and the Taliban was that they would not be kicked out [of Qatar], even if nothing comes from discussions [with Karzai's government]," said Mozhdah.
Despite wrangling in Qatar, many Afghans believe the road to a long-term peace runs through Islamabad. "The Taliban are being manuevered by the Pakistani side," said Sultanzoy. "Most of the Arab nations are friendly to the Pakistani regime."
For many in Afghanistan, Karzai's talks in the Gulf or the Taliban's forays in London, Berlin or Paris are of little value until Islamabad is properly addressed.
Senior Taliban leader detained in S. Afghanistan
KABUL, April 5 (Xinhua) -- A senior Taliban leader was arrested Friday in an operation conducted by Afghan forces and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in southern province of Helmand, the ISAF forces confirmed.
"An Afghan and coalition security force arrested a senior Taliban leader and detained one other insurgent during an operation in Nahr-e Saraj district, Helmand province, today," the ISAF said in a press release.
"The leader is accused of commanding a cell of fighters responsible for conducting attacks against Afghan and coalition forces. He allegedly provides weapons for use in insurgency operations throughout the district, and is believed to be heavily involved in improvised explosive device operations," the release added without revealing the name of man.
In addition, the joint forces also detained a Taliban facilitator and several other insurgents in different provinces earlier Friday, the release noted.
The Taliban insurgent group, which has been waging an insurgency for more than one decade, has yet to make comments.
The security forces have recently intensified operations across the country as spring and summer known as the fighting season is drawing near.
Russia not to have military bases in Afghanistan: official
MOSCOW, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Russia would not consider deploying military bases in Afghanistan, Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said on Friday.
Commenting on reports that the possibility of creating military maintenance bases in Afghanistan was discussed between Russia and NATO, Antonov said the establishment of any Russian military bases in the Afghan territory was "out of the question."
Russia has been willing to help the Afghan government improve its armed forces, Antonov said, adding stability in the Asian country is necessary to NATO members, Russia and its Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) partners.
The official also expressed Russia's willingness to assist both NATO- led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and "Afghan friends."
According to him, the cooperation potential between NATO and CSTO countries in addressing stability and security challenges in Asia was huge.
Afghanistan is due to take over the security duties from U.S. and NATO forces by the end of 2014. The Afghan National Security Forces have already taken full control of areas, where about 75 percent of the population lives.
Under U.S. President Barack Obama's withdrawal plan, 33,000 U.S. troops already pulled out of Afghanistan in September last year and another 34,000 will return home within one year.
Afghanistan says Pakistan putting conditions on Taliban peace effort, relations at new low
Associated Press April 04, 2013
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan accused Pakistan on Thursday of placing unacceptable conditions on efforts to bring peace to the country after nearly 12 years of war, the latest in a series of barbed exchanges that has sunk relations between the two neighbors to a new low.
A breakdown in ties threatens to hinder — or even paralyze — attempts to lure the Taliban to the negotiating table. That's a key goal of the United States and its allies as they work for a peaceful solution in Afghanistan ahead of the final pullout of foreign combat forces in 20 months.
Afghanistan and its international backers consider Pakistan a critical player in bringing the Taliban and other militant groups into peace talks. Pakistan holds dozens of Taliban prisoners and has been accused of backing the insurgents in an effort to be able to exert influence in Afghanistan after foreign troops leave.
A senior Pakistan official said, however, that Islamabad remained committed to reconciliation.
That's why Pakistan recently released 26 Afghan Taliban prisoners from its jails, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. Pakistan remains in contact with members of the Taliban who have been empowered to talk about reconciliation, he said.
A failure to bring peace could endanger the stability of Afghanistan and much of the region, including Pakistan, which is fighting its own domestic Taliban insurgency.
"We have told the Pakistanis that they should support peace in Afghanistan not only for the sake of the Afghan people, but for their own sake," Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai told The Associated Press in an interview on Thursday.
He said Afghanistan wants a close, broad, strategic relationship with Pakistan, "but one between two equal independent sovereign states, nothing less."
Pakistan, Mosazai said, is constantly shifting its position. Islamabad should be "supporting the Afghan peace process in a more meaningful way and having an independent bilateral relationship that is not based on a delusional desire to control Afghanistan."
So far, Afghanistan has been unsuccessful in getting militants to negotiate peace and needs Pakistan's help. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has urged the Taliban to work out a political resolution to the war and has backed a plan for the Taliban to open an office in the Gulf state of Qatar.
Publicly, the Taliban have long refused to speak directly with Karzai or his government, which they view as a puppet of foreign powers. Afghanistan thinks Pakistan has the influence to get them to talk so it's not helpful when the two capitals are feuding.
Relations between the two countries have been hot and cold in recent years.
Afghanistan often blames Pakistan for supporting insurgents who are fighting both NATO troops and government forces. Afghan officials also claim Pakistan has had a role in major attacks and suicide bombings. They said a suicide bombing that killed a former Afghan president and leader of the government-appointed peace council in September 2011 was planned in Quetta, Pakistan.
"It is not a tempest in a teapot," said Michael O'Hanlon, a fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution. "An increasing number of Afghans have figured out how much of a hand Islamabad has had in all the violence over the years.
"If there is a silver lining, it's that Islamabad needs to know that the world has figured them out and that they can't continue their double game indefinitely and get away with it. Some Pakistanis know that already. Many still need to understand it."
Relations between Islamabad and Kabul had been improving in recent months.
Karzai had lauded Pakistan's decision to work for peace and help Afghanistan reach out to the Taliban, whose leaders are thought to be based in Pakistan.
In July, when British Prime Minister David Cameron visited Kabul and met with Karzai and the Pakistani prime minister, they pledged to work together to eliminate terrorism and agreed that peace in Afghanistan would help improve security in Pakistan.
In October, Salahuddin Rabbani, the current head of the peace council and the son of the ex-Afghan president who was slain, visited Islamabad and presented Pakistan with a plan to bring peace to his country by 2015. That plan included the active participation of Pakistan.
A month later, Pakistan's foreign minister gave the Afghans a draft agreement for a strategic partnership and Pakistani army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani made a visit to Kabul. That visit further bolstered Afghan hopes that Islamabad was committed to peace and good relations.
NATO, Afghanistan and Pakistan signed a deal for better military coordination on the border, and equally important, Afghan officials said Kayani not only indicated support for the Afghan peace plan, but said that it should be accelerated from 2015 to 2013.
At a February meeting in London, the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan further cemented their relationship. At the meeting, it was announced that Afghanistan and Pakistan had committed themselves to trying to achieve peace within six months.
But Afghan officials said the meeting was not as rosy at it seemed.
They said Islamabad demanded three preconditions: That Afghanistan limit its relations with India — Pakistan's archenemy; reach a domestic consensus on peace; and immediately sign a strategic partnership with Pakistan.
Instead of the preconditions, the Afghans said they were expecting Pakistan to take its own steps toward fostering peace talks, including the release of the former No. 2 Taliban leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. Afghan officials hoped that Baradar and other imprisoned members of the Taliban can help bring the Taliban to the peace talks. In January, Pakistan's foreign secretary had said Islamabad would eventually release all Taliban prisoners.
"Pakistan is continuing with delaying tactics in their support of the peace process by demanding a supposed intra-Afghan consensus on the peace process at a time that a national consensus to end the violence is the strongest it has ever been for the past decade," Mosazai told the AP.
Western officials have said that the Afghan government was too optimistic about what Pakistan was ready to give, especially on the release of Baradar, and that they should show patience.
Pakistan has denied issuing preconditions, but Afghan officials say recent comments show otherwise — including some made by unnamed Pakistani foreign ministry officials that Karzai was an impediment to peace.
"We believe that relations between the two countries are deteriorating," Karzai spokesman Aimal Faizi said recently. "Enough is enough."
In Islamabad, the senior Pakistani official stressed that Pakistan was supporting reconciliation. As a way to kick start the peace process, the official said Pakistan has suggested a meeting attended by the Taliban and representatives from Afghanistan's multiple ethnic groups. He insisted that the meeting was not aimed at excluding Karzai from the process, but rather to make sure that the Afghan president didn't cut out his own political opposition.
Further complicating efforts to gain traction on a peace process is internal fighting among members of the Taliban, the official said. He said there was an ongoing debate between two factions of the Taliban: Those who reject talks when they are close to seeing international forces leave and a weaker Afghan force take charge and others who see reconciliation as a way to regain political power in Afghanistan.
AP Intelligence writer Kimberly Dozier contributed from Islamabad.
More poor Afghan girls now go to school
KABUL, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Despite economic problems and traditional barriers, more and more Afghan girls are now attending classes in their villages to secure their future.
"I am very happy to get education and attend classes in my village," Najiba, 13, said when Xinhua visited her recently in her school in Qalai Gadar village.
Now in Grade 6, Najiba who like most Afghans go by only one name, said that her father and brothers did not want her to go to school where all the teachers, except for one, are males.
Built by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) with the financial support from Hollywood film star Angelina Jolie in Qalai Gadar, a rural community in Qara Bagh district some 40 km north of Afghan capital Kabul, the school is one of the few primary schools providing education to local residents there.
The two-story building, which opened in 2012, accommodates around 400 pupils mostly girls at two shifts from 10 nearby villages.
In this conservative country where tribalism and traditionalism are deeply-rooted and many parents, particularly in rural areas, prefer their girls to stay at home, the Qalai Gadar Primary Girl School has defied tradition and welcomes young girls to its classrooms.
"My father and brothers do not want me to go to school. They said that there is only one female teacher in the school and it does not look good for girls to be seen there,"Najiba said.
Even at her young age, Najiba said she wants to be a medical doctor so that she can help treat her countrymen.
"In the past we studied in open, but today I am happy that I, along with my two sisters and four brothers, are now learning our lessons inside a building," Yasmin, 14,another student of Grade 6, said.
The majority of the students in the school are the offspring of former refugees who fled the conflict and live in neighboring states of Pakistan and Iran during Taliban's six-year reign which collapsed in late 2001.
During its brutal reign, the Taliban, which was ousted by the U. S.-led coalition military campaign 12 years ago, had outlawed schools for girls and confined women to their houses.
A few months ago, the Taliban attacked a young Pakistani girl who espoused education for girls. The young girl who has survived the attack, vowed to continue her advocacy.
Although the Qalai Gadar School is offering only elementary education, or up to Grade 6, school headmaster Gul Rahman Ayaz said that efforts are now being made to upgrade the school into a high school.
However, Ayaz said that he is not very optimistic about the outcome of their plan.
"One of our main problems is the extreme scarcity of female teachers here. Presently we have 12 teachers here but only one of them is female and the remaining 11 others are males which creates cultural problem," Ayaz said, adding that the lack of female teachers is one of the reasons why parents are reluctant to send their daughters to the school.
Located in a slum neighborhood, the Qalai Gadar Primary Girl School is a suitable education center for the children of the poor community. But the school lacks flowing water, electricity, textbooks and school supplies, amenities that the poor pupils do not have.
The whole school has just a simple manual pumping water facility to produce drinking water for the students and their teachers.
Ayaz said that because of lack of budget, the school could not afford to buy a power generator that could be used to pump water to a water tank.
Some 8.4 million students, 39 percent of them girls, now go to school in the post-Taliban Afghanistan, according to officials.
Women Professionals Form Body for Political Representation
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat Thursday, 04 April 2013
Women lawmakers, civil society members, media professionals, and government staff have formed a movement to back women's rights in the upcoming presidential election, beginning with a proposal to parliament on securing gender quotas for women candidates.
Supported by the ministry of women's affairs and the gender committee of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), the group is aiming to raise the profile of women's political rights with the backdrop of the 2014 election.
The group is expected to give parliament a proposal next Monday which outlines how to protect women's rights including a demand that gender quotas are introduced in the presidential, parliamentarian, and provincial council elections – with as many as 50 percent of positions allocated to women or that only half the number of votes are required for a female candidate compared to a male candidate.
It also suggests that women candidates should be given funding assistance from the Ministry of Women's Affairs and if they are not elected the funds should be repaid back to the ministry.
"We don't want our rights to fall victim on the path of misdeeds. It is essential to have this proposal considered in the election law," said MP Shukria Barikzai.
"Our intention to put this proposal together was nobody's viewpoint. The only goal was to give more opportunities to the innovative and brave women [of Afghanistan]," MP Farida Nikzad said.
The Foundation for Free and Fair Elections of Afghanistan (FEFA) welcomed the proposal and called on parliament to give it some attention when considering the election law.
"We welcome this initiative by women. There should be more facilities for women considering the current situation in the country because women do not have the same amount of opportunities as have men," said FEFA executive director Jandad Spinghar.
Women rights activists urged that the IEC should include more women in their structure, to which IEC gender committee responded that there are a number of women employed temporarily.
"The election commission has constantly encouraged the role of women in the elections, and it should consider the role of women in the commission's temporary staff," said Farida Khenjani, advisor to IEC's gender committee.
The presidential and provincial council elections will be held April 5, 2014.
Insecurity and lack of sound population data are said to be the main challenges ahead of ensuring a fair and transparent poll.
New Zealand withdraws its troops from Afghanistan, grants Afghan interpreters residency
Associated Press Friday, April 5, 2013
BAMIYAN, Afghanistan - New Zealand has withdrawn its small contingent of troops from Afghanistan.
The South Pacific nation had stationed about 145 soldiers in central Bamiyan province since 2003. Ten of its soldiers died during the conflict.
The withdrawal came about five months earlier than initially planned. The U.S. and its allies plan to withdraw all remaining troops by the end of 2014.
In a ceremony Thursday, New Zealand lowered its flag and opened a memorial to commemorate both the New Zealand troops and Afghan security forces who died in the province.
About 95 Afghan interpreters and their family members who worked with the Kiwis will this month move to New Zealand, where they have been granted residency.
New Zealand will continue to station 27 planning and intelligence personnel in Kabul.
Shanghai Should Work with US on Afghanistan: Analysts
TOLOnews.com By Anisa Shahid Thursday, 04 April 2013
Afghan political analysts suggested Thursday that the support of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) will only be advantageous to Afghanistan if it works with the US and Nato and not against.
The analysts were commenting to TOLOnews on the report from Chinese press agency Xinhua which said that the Chinese foreign ministry met with its Russian and Pakistani counterparts last night to discuss the crisis in Afghanistan and how the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation might help.
The diplomats from the three countries met Wednesday evening in the Chinese capital Beijing to discuss their concerns about Afghanistan, saying the country's security is important for the region and directly affects all of the surrounding, Xinhua said.
The SCO was formed in 2001 by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan to address matters of Eurasian security.
But at least one Afghan analyst believes its agenda is different to that of the US which may cause problems.
"This organisation basically stands against the United States and it acts with a sole purpose. If Shanghai is to play an alternative role and compete, it will bring losses to Afghanistan," said Afghan political analyst Salih Mohammad Rigestani. "But if Shanghai is to play a role for peace – which is a political act – in cooperation with the United States, it would be possible."
"We shouldn't forget that the United States will not give its role in Afghanistan to Shanghai, and also Shanghai cannot play an alternative role," he added.
While the Xinhua report said the three countries agreed on further endevours to provide peace and sustainability in Afghanistan, the Afghan analysts described the move as skewed because it does not sufficiently address the role of Pakistan.
"Those who attended the Shanghai meeting should put pressure on Pakistan and not simply say that the situation in Afghanistan has a direct effect over their countries. They have to also talk about Pakistan," said political analyst Gen Atiqullah Rahimi.
"If Pakistan leaves off interfering and starts helping peace in Afghanistan, it will do nobody any more harm and also security will be provided in the country [Afghanistan]," he added.
Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran all have observer status in the SCO.
Those Who Plant Mines Will Go to Hell: Mojaddedi
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat Thursday, 04 April 2013
Those who place roadside bombs and other types of improvised explosives will go to hell for their deeds, High Peace Council member Sibghatullah Mojaddedi said Wednesday, drawing similarities between the makeshift bombs and suicide bombing.
Speaking at an event for the occasion of International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, Mojaddedi said that those who plant mines will go to hell in the afterlife the same as suicide bombers, adding that Afghanistan needs further international assistance in clear the mines.
"Those who commit suicide think that they will go to the Janat [paradise], but in fact they go to hell because committing suicide, when you harm others and destroy others, is not permitted in Islam," Mojadidi said at the Loya Jirga tent in Kabul. Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are said to be responsible for death of more people in Afghanistan than any other cause, with most of the devices being planted in south and east parts of the country.
As many as 80 percent of casualties among civilians are from roadside mines over the past few years, reports suggest.
The United Nations figures show that 21,000 farms, 2,200 villages, and 121 districts across Afghanistan have been cleared from mines thus far with 1.2 million mines and 16 million explosive devices destroyed by the mine action organisations.
However, there are still 4,900 areas across Afghanistan contain mines.
"Currently there are 12,000 Afghans delivering all aspects of mine action throughout the country. Most of them are employed by five Afghan NGOs and two intentional NGOs...These people have been working for 25 years clearing mines from Afghanistan," said Abigail Hartley, Program Manager of UN Mine Action Service (UMAS) in Kabul.
Expressing her respect for the work of the deminers, Hartley said: "The collective achievement of Afghan government ministries, Afghan NGOs, international NGOs, the UN, and donors to the programme is outstanding. You will never ever be in a room and hear more success than we are claiming here today."
"It is practically fitting today to acknowledge the considerable achievements of the mines action programme of Afghanistan supported by UNMAS which is already done so much to clear the country of mines and create an awareness of mines that will have saved lives of many thousands of people," said Mark Bowden, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
The presence of mines in some parts of Afghanistan have held back implementation of development projects.
"The Afghan government should be as responsible as the donors [in removing the mines] because implementation of large and infrastructure projects will be hard without the mine action projects," said Mohammad Shahab Hakimi, an Afghan mine action official.
Despite many efforts to remove the mines, tens of Afghans lose their lives or are disabled every day as a result of IEDs or unexploded ordinances across Afghanistan.
Three Ministers Receive MP Vote of Confidence
TOLOnews.com By Rafi Sediqi Thursday, 04 April 2013
Lawmakers have given a vote of confidence to three government ministers of the 11 whose ministries are under scrutiny for poor budget management two years ago.
The ministers of education Farouq Wardak, commerce and industry Anwar-ul-Haq Ahadi, and counter-narcotics Ahmad Moqbel will keep their positions after receiving the vote of confidence on Wednesday.
The three appeared before parliament on Wednesday, along with the minister of energy and water Mohammad Ismail Khan, to explain the reasons for their ministries' failure to spend more than 50 percent of their respective development budgets in the Persian year 1390 (March 2011-March 2012).
The vote of confidence for Ismail Khan was deemed too "vague" to be upheld and a second vote will be taken at a later date, according to parliamentary officials.
However, some of the MPs rejected the decision for a re-vote on Ismail Khan, saying that the minister had not received sufficient votes and that should be the final outcome on the matter.
"Every minister who didn't receive parliament's vote of confidence – like the ministers who were disqualified today – should be disqualified. There should be no disagreement about it," said MP Mohammad Naim Lalai Hameedzai on Wednesday. MP Shukria Barikzai scoffed at the decision to have another vote for Ismail Khan.
"If the parliament decides that the ministers who received a low vote are not disqualified, it will be then a masterstroke that no parliament in the world has ever done," she said Wednesday. The other ministers who were questioned by the lawmakers on Monday – economics, mines, and information and culture – will also be voted on at a later date.
Those who were questioned by parliament on Wednesday repeated what the ministers said on Monday: that they never received most of the funds allocated in their development budgets therefore they could not spend more than 50 percent of that budget.
"If the funds assured by the donors had been provided to this ministry, our levels of budget expenditure would have been higher," education minister Wardak said. "If we calculate [the percentage spent] based on the funds that were provided to us, then we spent more than 60 percent of the budget."
Counter narcotics minister Moqbel claimed that his ministry spent a large amount of the budget it had.
"We were able to spend a great amount of our budget, but despite a number of donors assuring us of funds and it was even put in the budget, the funds were not provided to us," he said.
Minister of energy and water Ismail Khan said: "Out of all the budget in our hands, a large amount was spent in development projects; however, a few million dollars which was in the budget was not provided to us by the donors."
Finance minister Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal, who has been present at both the Monday and Wednesday parliamentary sessions, supported the reasons given by the ministers saying that most of the donors have reversed their assurances on the promised funds.
He told the lawmakers that the budgets were estimated based on donor assurances, but many of the donors including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank did not deliver the full amount of their assurances in 1390 and 1391.
The remaining four ministers to face parliament – higher education, interior, defence, and urban development – are to be questioned by the lawmakers on Saturday.
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