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Parliament approves budget
The budget document for the fiscal year 1399, Persian calendar, was finally approved on Wednesday by 101 votes by and 45 votes against in the Afghan parliament.
The Afghan parliament’s financial and budget commission banned the Afghan government from channelling money to the emergency code-91.
The lower house included the budget document in their agenda on Wednesday to clarify its status.
Some of the MPs prevented the Financial and Budget Commission to report the budget because of the imbalance in the developmental projects, and criticized the performance of the commission,
Sayed Zahir Masroor, the Balkh MP said in the matter, “at the beginning of the legislative year, the financial and budget commission didn’t act nationally, and that’s why many complaints were raised towards the budget plan.”
However, the financial and budget commission underlined that no treason has been made by the commission as they have sent all the suggestions of the MPs to the ministry of finance in written.
“More than 700 suggestions have been sent to the Ministry of Finance, and they have the authority to bring amendments in the budget draft as they may,” said Mohammad Azim Mohseni, chair of the commission.
This comes as, besides many complaints, the budget draft was put to vote, and it was approved winning more than 69% of the votes.
The other concern of the lower house was channelling money from and to code-91 on which the parliament finally took away the government’s authority.
The financial and budget commission further added that only 11 new developmental projects were added to the budget document, and more than 500 projects were ordinary projects.
Mir Rahman Rahmani, the speaker of the lower house, underscored that the national budget document includes more than 428 billion AFN, out of which more than 289 billion AFN is dedicated to ordinary projects, and more than 139 billion AFN is dedicated to the developmental projects.
Approving the national budget, the MPs want the government administrations to spend the budget legally, or else, they will have to stand accountable to the house.
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Iran, Pakistan leaders raise concerns over ‘terrorist groups’ in Afghanistan
Following a two-day official visit to Pakistan, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif issued a joint statement emphasizing the need to further expand commercial and economic cooperation and transform the common border of the two countries from a “border of peace” to “border of prosperity”.
The two leaders also strongly condemned aggressions and crimes of Israel in Gaza, and demanded an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, as well as unimpeded humanitarian access to the besieged people of Gaza.
Numerous other issues were also discussed but on the topic of Afghanistan, they jointly declared their commitment to the development of Afghanistan as a peaceful, united, independent country free from the threats of terrorism and drug trafficking.
According to the statement the two countries pointed out that the existence of terrorist organizations in Afghanistan is a serious threat to the security of the region and the world.
The two sides stressed their desire to strengthen cooperation in the field of fighting terrorism and ensuring security and creating a united front against terrorism.
They also discussed the importance of coordinating regional and international efforts to ensure security and stability in the region.
“While respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan, the two sides recognized that increasing participation of all strata of Afghans in basic decision-making will lead to the strengthening of peace and stability in this country,” the statement read.
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Over 1,000 Afghan refugees forced out of Pakistan in one day
The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations (MoRR) says over 1,000 Afghan migrants were forcibly returned from Pakistan on Tuesday through Spin Boldak border crossing in Kandahar province, the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry stated that based on information provided by the Spin Boldak Kandahar border command, these returnees comprised 191 families, totalling 998 people.
In addition, three migrants released from Pakistani prisons were also returned, according to the statement.
The statement added that after registering the returnees, the refugees were referred to the offices of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the World Food Program (WFP) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Each family received 10,000 afghanis – paid to them by the Islamic Emirate.
In another statement, the ministry said that 2,783 migrants living in Iran voluntarily and forcibly returned to the country during this week.
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Afghanistan’s minister of transport and aviation attends regional meeting in Uzbekistan
Hamidullah Akhundzadeh, acting Minister of Transport and Aviation, headed a delegation to Uzbekistan for a ‘Six-Party Corridor’ meeting that included representatives from Afghanistan, Russia, Belarus, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
On the sidelines of this meeting the Afghanistan delegation discussed trade through the corridor with the other five relevant countries.
According to the ministry of transport and aviation, Akhundzadeh met with the deputy ministers of transport of Russia and Belarus.
He also discussed ways to expand transit between Afghanistan and Russia; and Afghanistan and Belarus, and provide the necessary facilities to achieve this.
The ministry added that the acting minister had a bilateral meeting with the Minister of Transport and the Special Representative of the President of Uzbekistan on Afghanistan and discussed the expansion of road transport between the two countries.
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