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200 corruption cases tackled by AGO in past two months
The Attorney General’s Office said Wednesday during a state accountability program briefing that 200 corruption cases, mostly involving government officials and government employees, have been investigated in the past two months.
“In the past two solar months the Attorney General has handed over 224 corruption cases to the High Court and 500 people have been charged,” said Jamshid Rasouly, spokesman for the AGO.
“The defendants include high-ranking officials such as deputies, governors, heads of departments, members of the provincial council and parliament, who have been charged with embezzlement, bribery, abuse of authority, money laundering, forgery of documents, also among these, there are 76 military cases and 178 defendants are included,” Rasouly added.
Rasouly said more than 1,700 corruption cases have been investigated this (solar) year. He said government officials, a number of members of the National Assembly and Provincial Councils are among those charged.
“In one year, the tireless efforts of the Attorney General’s Office to establish a modern anti-corruption mechanism have led to far-reaching changes. Today, the results of this national struggle in 1399 solar year are 1,791 cases, which shows that this promise has been increasingly fulfilled,” Rasouly said.
But Integrity Watch Afghanistan says that there has been no reforms at the Attorney General’s Office in the fight against corruption.
This comes after President Ashraf Ghani said about a month ago the leadership of the Attorney General’s Office needed to ramp up efforts to fight corruption and questioned the body’s performance.
A number of MPs in the Wolesi Jirga (Lower House of Parliament) and civil society members have claimed the Attorney General’s Office and the Afghan judiciary deal with cases of corruption politically.
In addition to this, it has been three months since the establishment of the Anti-Corruption Commission and according to Afghan oversight bodies and civil society, the commission has so far provided no results in the fight against corruption.
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Girls’ education is a ‘vital issue’ for Afghanistan: Karzai
Former president Hamid Karzai said in a meeting with Iran’s ambassador and special representative, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, that education of girls was a “vital issue” for Afghanistan.
Karzai said he appreciated Iran’s cooperation and its standing with the Afghan people, especially Iran’s contributions to education in Afghanistan.
During the meeting, Karzai said peace and stability in the region are in the interest of all regional countries.
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Uzbekistan’s humanitarian aid arrives in Balkh
A shipment of humanitarian aid from Uzbekistan was handed over on Thursday to the local officials of Balkh province in the trade port of Hairatan.
Local authorities said the aid, which includes flour, oil, wheat, sugar and meat, has been handed over by Uzbekistan’s Surkhandarya governor to the governor of Balkh.
The governor of Surkhandarya stated the purpose of sending this aid was to support the people of Afghanistan and stressed the need for the development of good relations between the two countries.
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Afghanistan’s problems caused more damage to Pakistan than 3 wars with India: Durrani
Islamabad’s special envoy for Afghanistan Asif Durrani said on Wednesday that Pakistan has suffered more due to Afghanistan’s internal situation than Pakistan has suffered in three wars with India in terms of blood spilt and finances drained.
Durrani said at a one-day International Conference titled “Pakistan in the Emerging Geopolitical Landscape”, which was organized by the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) and the German Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), that over 80,000 Pakistanis died in the two decades of the War on Terror and that his country was still counting its dead and injured.
“After the withdrawal of NATO forces, it was hoped that peace in Afghanistan would bring peace to the region. However, such expectations were short-lived,” he said.
He also stated that attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group on Pakistan’s border areas increased by 65 percent, while suicide attacks increased by 500 percent.
“The TTP’s enhanced attacks on Pakistan while using Afghan soil have been a serious concern for Pakistan. Another worrying aspect is the participation of Afghan nationals in these attacks,” he said.
Durrani also said Pakistan had suffered geopolitically since the Soviet Union invaded the neighboring country.
“The post-9/11 world order has negatively impacted Pakistan. Apart from losing 80,000 citizens’ lives, including 8,000 law enforcement agency personnel, the country’s economic opportunity cost is estimated at $150 billion,” Durrani said.
Talking about the future outlook for Pakistan in the regional context, Durrani said that while “our eastern neighbor is likely to continue with its anti-Pakistan pursuits, the western border poses an avoidable irritant in the short to medium term.”
However, he said Pakistan can overcome its difficulties with Afghanistan, including the TTP challenge.
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