Tolo News: President Ashraf Ghani has been criticized for promoting the acting defense minister, Tariq Shah Bahrami, four times since 2014 – from lieutenant colonel to the rank of lieutenant general. Military analysts have said the promotion in rank was given to him because of his close ties with the National Security Advisor’s office and not because
The Washington Post: Last week, Gen. Mohammad Moeen Faqir, the former commander of embattled Helmand Province, and Abdul Ghafar Dawi, the director of a large fuel company and other businesses, chafed in silence as prosecutors in an anti-corruption court charged them with embezzlement and abuse of authority. Click here to read more (external link).
The New York Times: Mumtaz is a 23-year-old woman from the northern Afghan province of Kunduz, the victim of an acid attack when she was 18, whose tormentors were jailed. It was a rare legal victory in the struggle for women’s rights in Afghanistan, hailed at the time as proof that justice for female victims was possible.
Politico: Instead of approving their plan for more troops as anticipated, the president has caught his generals off guard by questioning whether the 16-year-long effort to stabilize Afghanistan is still worth it, according to current and former military officials familiar with the conversations. Meanwhile, news reports raise the prospects he might replace the top U.S. commander
Macleans: Amidst claims of a ‘fake’ dispatch to Kabul, a ‘conspiracy’ against her and a staff revolt, the ambassador was recalled and may not return to Ottawa. In recent months, Ghani’s government has been subjected to withering criticism over what his critics have called the “Pashtunization” of his administration, and the political leaders of the country’s
The Diplomat: Opium has an analgesic effect and is the base for morphine, heroin, and other opioids that are used for medical purposes, but also for illegal drug consumption. Afghanistan accounts for some 70 percent of the global opium production, according to the World Drug Report 2016 of the United Nations Office on Drugs and
Michael Hughes: Afghanistan’s High Peace Council (HPC) is tasked with trying to budge the country towards some kind of peace process with a headless Taliban movement while the body faces an existential struggle against Afghan lawmakers. Moreover, President Ashraf Ghani believes negotiations must start not with the Taliban but with the group’s benefactors, although that is
Frud Bezhan Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty June 11, 2017 Afghanistan’s government is mired in a war against a 16-year insurgency that has forced the capital into virtual lockdown, ignited deadly protests, and compelled the head of state to retreat behind the barricaded walls of Kabul’s presidential palace. But off the battlefield, it is also waging
Tolo News: A debate in the Wolesi Jirga (Lower House of Parliament) over a recent controversial land deal between government and Alokozay Group of Companies exposed predictable divisions among lawmakers on Tuesday when chairman of parliament’s Transport and Telecommunication Commission slammed the accord as violation of the prevailing laws of the country and urged the contract’s
RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan May 24, 2017 Afghan authorities have arrested eight people, including the son of a lawmaker, after a rock-throwing crowd forced a plane to return abruptly to Kabul to pick up two lawmakers who had missed their flight. The May 23 incident has caused uproar among many Afghans, including politicians and people