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KABUL (Pajhwok): The Wolesi Jirga -- or the lower house of parliament -- on Monday approved Mohammad Masoom Stanikzai as National Directorate of Security ( NDS ) chief. Stanikzai was introduced as President Ashraf Ghani’s choice for spymaster along...

SAR-I-PUL CITY (Pajhwok): Some officials and residents have accused the China National Petroleum Corporation Inteational (CNPCI) of failing to keep its pledge to extract crude oil from Amu River and implement development projects in northe Sar-i-Pul province.

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KABUL (Pajhwok): Fourteen Nepalian nationals were killed and nine others, including four Afghans, wounded in a suicide bombing in capital Kabul on Monday, the Ministry of Interior (MoI) said. The incident took place at around 6:00am in the limits of...

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KABUL (Pajhwok):  The creation of three new institutions to manage Afghanistan’s road sector was officially endorsed on Sunday and the proposal would now be presented to President Ashraf Ghani for his review and authorization.

“This structural reform will lead the Afghan road sector toward sustainability in terms of project design, construction, operation and maintenance and financing,” said Public Works Minister Mahmood Baligh told a ceremony in this regard in Kabul.

Ahmad Zia Massood, president’s special representative for Reforms and Good Goveance, representatives from five Afghan ministries --- finance, justice, public works, urban development and transportation --- and the Independent Directorate of Local Govement, and the Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission were present on the occasion.

The Ministry of Public Works, in collaboration with the Road Sector Sustainability Program of United States Agency for Inteational Development (USAID), designed a sectoral reform aimed at improving the management, financing, and efficiency of road operations and maintenance, the USAID said in a statement.

“This is a major step forward in creating a sustainable system to fund and maintain Afghanistan’s roads,” said USAID Mission Director Herbert Smith. “We are happy to partner today with the Ministry of Public Works in this significant achievement.”

Once established, these new institutions --- a Road Authority, a Road Fund, and a Transportation Institute --- will improve the accountability and efficiency of road-user fees in order to better fund and manage road operations and maintenance.

Based on inteational best practices, the objective is to shift road maintenance in Afghanistan from public sector management and financing to a self-supporting commercialized system.

USAID has invested more than $2 billion in the construction and rehabilitation of more than 2,000 kilometers of roads. This new initiative by USAID will ensure sustainability through knowledge building, good management, assured financing, and accountability in the future of the transportation sector in Afghanistan.

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KABUL (Pajhwok): The Wolesi Jirga or lower house of parliament is all set to endorse or reject President Ashraf Ghani’s picks to head the Ministry of Defence and the National Directorate of Security (NDS) tomorrow (Monday), a lawmaker said on Sunday.

Earlier, the defence minister-designate and the spymaster nominee were introduced to the Wolesi Jirga for a vote of confidence.

Second Vice-President Sarwar Danish had introduced Lt. Gen. Abdullah Khan Habibi as defence minister-designate and Mohammad Masoom Stanikizai as NDS chief to the Wolesi Jirga.

“We are in a fragile political and security situation, with the Warsaw Summit due next month. The world wants a single address and unity of command in our security forces in retu for cooperation with us,” Danish told MPs.

Niamatullah Ghafarzai, 2nd deputy speaker, said the two nominees would be summoned to the house tomorrow and ballot boxes would be put in place so that lawmakers could cast their vote as per decision of panel heads.

Abdullah Khan Habibi had served on different posts in the military over the past 15 years while Stanikzai served as acting defence minister for more than a year.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been headed by an acting minister for the past two and a half years. The NDS has also been spearheaded by an acting head after Rahmatullah Nabil resigned as spymaster in December, 2015.

A number of lawmakers have previously complained that one major cause of insecurity in the country was acting leadership of security organs.

At Sunday’s session, lawmakers also debated the presidential legislative decree on electoral reform rejected a couple of days back.

Juma Din Gyanwal, a lawmaker, said: “People and the lawmakers are worried that the govement is divided 50/50 between the president and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Another lawmaker Sher Mohammad Akhundzada said: “It was feared lawmakers could be divided into two groups over election reforms and future elections to Wolesi Jirga would face huge challenges like the last presidential election where nobody accepted responsibility for the rigging and disorganized election.”

Some lawmakers expressed similar views regarding the presidential legislative degree and asked the commission conceed to give them more time so they could thoroughly study the laws.

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PUL-I-KHUMRI/ MAIMANA (Pajhwok): Taliban ’s military in-charge for northe Baghlan province was detained on Sunday from a police vehicle carrying him for treatment to Kabul , the Ministry of Interior (MoI) said. A MoI statement to Pajhwok Afghan...

PUL-I-KHUMRI/ MAIMANA (Pajhwok): Taliban ’s military in-charge for northe Baghlan province was detained on Sunday from a police vehicle carrying him for treatment to Kabul , the Ministry of Interior (MoI) said. A MoI statement to Pajhwok Afghan...

JALALABAD (Pajhwok): First Vice-President Abdul Rashid Dostum on Sunday provided cash and food assistance to families of border policemen killed during Torkham border clashes. A week back, Pakistani forces tried to construct a gate at the border to...

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TIRINKOT (Pajhwok): A 60-year-old woman, Babo, has lost her husband and six sons to the conflict in central Uruzgan province. She says govement officials are demanding bribe from her in retu for issuing martyr cards of her sons.

Babo lives in Talani area of Tirinkot, the provincial capital, with her widowed daughter-in-law and 10 grandchildren.

She told Pajhwok Afghan News during an interview that her spouse was killed during the Taliban regime (1996-2001), leaving she and their six sons and two daughters behind.

She said her six sons, including four who were in police and the remaining two jobless, were killed by insurgents and unknown gunmen during years of the conflict.

Her eldest son, a policeman, was killed five years ago in a roadside bombing. Her second police son was killed in a Taliban attack on their post in southe Kandahar province.

Her fourth son and the youngest son, both policemen, were killed after a colleague tued his gun on them. The attacker had links with insurgents, Babo said.

While shedding tears, she said her two more sons who had no govement job or enmity with anyone were killed by unknown assailants.

“When my two elder sons martyred, I tied the knot of their wives with my other sons, but the conflict claimed their lives as well and I was left with only widows and orphaned children.”

The Uruzgani woman said the killers of her sons were yet to be found. But the rogue policeman who killed her two young sons was released after spending two months in jail.

Babo said she had tried to get the insider attacker punished in a court of law but he was released in exchange for money.

She said she was living in a rented home with her one widowed daughter in law and 10 grandchildren.

She said the widow of her eldest son was some time ago forcibly taken away by her cousins and gave her into marriage to a man. The grey-haired Babo said: “They took away the widow but left behind her four sons and two daughters with me.”

She said her four police sons had been killed but the Uruzgan police headquarters had never assisted her and even she was being asked to grease palms in retu for registering her sons in the martyrs’ book.

She also said the provincial labour, social affairs, martyrs and disabled department was yet to make martyr cards for her sons.

Babo said she had a job at the election commission last year. She would search female visitors. She had also for some time worked as guard at the home of former Uruzgan police chief Gen. Matiullah Khan.

Currently she works at vaccination section of the Uruzgan civil hospital and the salary she receives is spent on feeding her orphaned grandchildren.

Babo complained aid being provided by donors never reached the deserving families and such aid often ended up in pockets of those having connections.

She said attempts on her life had also been made. Six months ago a bomb planted at her home’s gate went off when she was leaving home for the job. She was slightly injured in the blast and other family members stayed unharmed.

Babo has lost hope. She has forgotten the killers of her husband and six sons. Now she does not demand their arrest and punishment. She lost faith in the judiciary after the killer of her youngest sons was released in exchange for money.

“Now my only conce is how to find bread for my widow daughter in law and the 10 orphaned children.”

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