The head of the security responsibility transition commission, Mr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, today said that at the present time, Afghan Forces control eighty percent of the security affairs in the country.  He also said that the Afghan government is capable of sustaining security across Afghanistan.
Mr. Ahmadzai also said there ill not be any issues after year 2014 if the transition event is dealt with properly while taking into consideration the overall security situation.
Mr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai was speaking at Nangarhar University.  He said the foreign rumors claiming Afghanistan’s security situation will get worse after the year 2014 are wrong.  He rejected the possibility of multiple crises based on the supposition of Afghanistan’s security becoming worse after 2014. He reiterated that it would not get worse.
Mr. Ahmadzai proudly reminded those assembled at the university of the Afghan Security Forces’ capabilities and emphasized that Afghan Forces are strong and are ready to encounter any types of problems.
According to him the Security responsibility transition will soon be handed over to Afghan Security Forces.
He also said, “The Afghan citizens should be rational and prepared enough in another 10 months as they have to face the biggest responsibility ever.”
Mr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai invited the Afghan people to take an active part in the upcoming presidential election since it would be the best chance to determine the future of the country.
All these statements were made to emphasize to the Afghan people that the Afghan Security Forces were ready to meet the challenges.  He clearly tried to ease peoples’ concerns and ensure them that a better future was ahead.

Some MPs at the Upper House of the Parliament urged all members of the Afghan Government involved in the counter-narcotics efforts to work together more closely, noting that the number of the drug addicts in Afghanistan is not being reduced.
Senators believe drug smuggling and the number of the drug addicts increases every day.
According to the Senators, each day sees an increased number of drug addicts.
The fact that two Afghan Ministry higher officials would not reveal big smugglers names, while drug cultivations increased, caused the two ministry officials to be summoned for accountability from the Senators.
Vice chairman of the Senate Muhammad Alam Izidyar said, “No doubt the Afghan Government was not able to obtain remarkable success against the drug phenomena in Afghanistan in the past 11 years.  Unfortunately there has never been coordination among the Government organizations to full demolish the miserable phenomena.”

Senator Najeeba Hussaini accused the Afghan Ministry of Counter Narcotics officials of being inefficient, saying, “The Counter Narcotics Minister in his recent statements declared that he had arrested the 8 drug lords considered to be the biggest offenders, which is a runaway alert itself to the smugglers.”

Senator Dawood Asas claims million dollars in funds have been provided to assist in the treatment of drug addicts, but so far it is clear that not a single drug addict has overcome the addiction to drugs.”
The Ministry of Counter Narcotics deputy spoke about the policies of the ministry not being implemented by others as they should have been, and the Ministry of Public Health also complained about the lack of financial budgets for the ministry.
The Afghan Ministry of Counter Narcotics deputy Haroon Rashid stated, “It has become a general issue in the region and the Ministry of Counter Narcotics will not be able to get rid of this phenomena alone and all the Afghan government organizations should work together to demolish the drug phenomena in the country otherwise it will not be possible to defeat this miserable phenomena in Afghanistan during the next 100 years.”
The Ministry of Public Health deputy Ahmad Jan Naeem said lack of financial funds were the biggest problem preventing the ministry from implementing the Ministry’s work plans.
Officials of these two Ministries claimed that there were improvements in their ability to treat drug addicts and declared that more anti-drug programs would soon be underway to treat them.

Senators in Afghanistan’s general session refuted recent statements from the United Nation’s special delegate to Afghanistan, saying, “No foreign organization is authorized to interfere in the National Council’s work affairs.”
After major arguments occurred over the failure of passage of the women’s protective anti-violence law in the House of Representatives, the UN special delegate in Kabul asked the National Council and the Afghan Government to make more serious attempts to approve the women’s protective anti-violence law draft.
The UN special delegate in Afghanistan, Jan Kubis, made statements supporting the legislation and asking the Afghan Government and the Parliament to support the approval of this law and in order to fully respect Afghan women and girls and to properly defend the rights of women.
The head of the Senate, Fazel Hadi Muslimyar, said,“This isn’t the UN special delegate’s job to consult and instruct Parliament about Afghan Women.  We respect Afghan women and the Afghan people will decide regarding this matter.”
Senator Abdul Wahab Irfan also criticized Mr. Kubis’ recent statement, adding, “Islamic Sharia has a balanced consideration on this issue where it covers the Afghan women rights as well, and there is no need for foreigners to interfere in Afghanistan’s domestic affairs.”
The women’s protective anti-violence law draft was supposed to be discussed for approval in last Saturday’s general session in the House of Representatives, but some members at the House stated that there were items in the proposed law that would conflict with Islamic values and referred it back to the commissioners of the law in the House to be re-worked.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has decided that the initial treatment with traditional and herbal medicines does not normally create a problem for the health of human beings.

Officials in the Ministry of Public Health said that this decision would not only recognize the traditional treatments officially but also boosts the economy of the countries.

A number of traditional treatments experts had asked the Government to provide the right path for the education of this kind of treatment in the country.

The sellers for the herbal plants said, “Our medicines that are made of herbs are the healthiest and proper medical ones but most of the sellers do not have official permission to sell their medicines.”

One of the sellers named Hakim Lala, who is an Indian-Afghan National, received official work permission from the Ministry of Public Health and the treatment herbs he uses were left to him as an inheritance from his father.

The second traditional expert, Hakin Jamdar, said, “Though I have received official work permission from the Ministry of Public Health, there is still a higher education institution to provide education for such treatments in Afghanistan.  Neighboring countries like India and Iran have their own universities established to provide education regarding these treatments.”

The head of pharmacy of Ministry of Public Health affairs, Abdul Hafiz Quraishi, said,”Since the World Health Organization (WHO) has accepted traditional and herbal treatments officially and the Ministry of Public Health has granted 56 work permits for qualified persons who offer such medical treatments in the country.”

He added that a number of persons are selling the herbal medicines illegally across the country.

The WHO decision on the traditional treatments and herbal medicines came after officials in the Ministry of Public Health termed as “effective” the traditional medical treatments.   Based estimates from the  WHO, China has gained $ 14 billion out of selling herbal medicines since 2005.

Entering the violence against women law in the Lower House of Parliament (Wolesi-Jirga) was ultimately a show of political force used by some inside and outside Parliament to appear to protect Islam when they were only denying women the right to live their lives without physical violence and personal harm.

Many of the Wolesi-jirga members have stated their belief that the Wolesi Jirga reaction against passage of the law was preventing enactment of President Hamid Karzai’s decree that women should be better protected.  These members who were for the law said that by not enacting the violence against Women’s Law on Saturday was a dark day in the National Assembly’s history.

Disagreements against some of the articles of the law from one side and consultations on how to get approval for the law on the other side have caused huge tensions in the Wolesi-jirga.  Ongoing discussions over violence against women are occurring within Governmental institutions.  There are concerns by women’s advocates that since the law didn’t pass that the government lacks sincere conviction that women need more protection from violence.

Wolesi-Jirga member Abdul Rahman Rahmani said that entering law to parliament’s agenda was a political program and has warned about the ramifications of the issue for the future.

A second member of the Wolesi-Jirga Farkhunda Zarah Nadiri also said that by entering such a law in the Wolesi-Jirga agenda was tearing the important tenants of the law into pieces and lashing it.

The two other members of the Wolesi-Jirga Zalmay Fayeaz and Sima Joyanda have endorsed the law for approval and said that disapproval of such law was type of disobedience to the Presidential decree.

The head of the Baghlan Provincial Council along with 13 others, including his guards, were killed in a suicide bomb attack today in Pul-i- Khomri City.

According to security officials in this province the suicide bomber was wearing a military uniform when he exploded himself near the entrance gate while the head of Baghlan Provincial Council, Muhammad Rassoul Mohsini, was about to enter his work office.

Baghlan Province Governor Sultan Muhammad Hadi reported that 13 were killed and 9 others wounded; but the Baghlan Province Police chief said that 14 had been killed and 11 others wounded.

Mostly civilians were the victims of the blast incident.

Taliban Group has claimed the responsibility of the incident and this group’s spokesperson Zabi ullah Mujahid in a phone conversation stated there were more causalities than the declared number.

Some are saying that the blast incident was planned in Pakistan.

House of Representatives member Muhammad Farhad Sediqqi tied the blast incident to the Pakistanis and said, “In fact Pakistan is behind all these incidents and Pakistan would never want peace to prevail across the country.”

Mr. Sediqqi said that in the near future the Presidential office would reveal evidence that will indicate the facts behind these recent bombings.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai criticized the incident through a statement and addressed this action as inhumane and anti-Islamic.

In addition the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs (MOI) criticized the incident in a memorandum and said the Taliban is behind the blast.

The Afghan Presidential office released a report stating that President Karzai would be visit Indian President Parnab Mukherjee and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his two-day visit to Delhi.  He also plans to visit some other higher officials in India to discuss both countries’ widespread relations in different fields especially to strengthen the Afghan Civil and Military organizations.
Pakistan, India’s real rival in the region during the past 10 years, has often attempted to dampen Indian-Afghan relations to curb the development of strong ties.  Also, they have attempted to restrict the number of Indian’s living in Afghanistan.
Some members of the National Council referred to Baghlan Province’s Monday morning blast as Pakistan’s sign of sensitivity of President Karzai’s trip to India.
Senator Dawood Asas believes that during Karzai’s visit to India there may be other blasts in different cities of Afghanistan.
The House of Representatives member Ahmad Behzad said, “Afghanistan’s and regional security is in a major progress and cooperation does not mean to open your front line to the other country in the region.”
Prior to this, Indian Foreign Ministry officials declared that they were observing Afghanistan’s demands to increase widespread political and security relations, and that they would focus on continued improvement to Afghan and Indian relations.

Officials of the Afghan Ministry of National Defense (MoD) report that Afghanistan’s intelligence has found some evidence suggesting that Pakistani Madrasas have been preparing students to accelerate attacks in Afghanistan.
The National Defense Ministry’s spokesman spoke at a joint press conference with NATO and spoke about the concerns, saying,  “The Afghan Forces are capable now to response against any types of threats from across the borders.”
National Defense Ministry’s spokesman Zahir Azimi said, “Our evidence indicates that all the religious Madrasas in Pakistan have closed and the manpower will now be used for suicide attacks.”

According to Mr. Azimi, Pakistan still thinks about bringing changes in Afghanistan after the international forces leave Afghanistan end of year 2014.Mr. Azimi applauded the Afghan Security Forces capabilities and added, “The Afghan forces are bravely stating to Afghanistan’s enemies that their threats will not bring any changes in Afghanistan.  The Afghan National Army (ANA) has an iron fist protecting the Afghan nation and are capable of resolving any sorts of threats and will control the situation.”
Lately, Afghanistan has seen several different Taliban-planned bomb blast incidents in various parts of the country. The vast majority of the victims of the incidents were children and women.