The Guardian (UK): The review finds the sheer scale of the aid resources funnelled through central state institutions was distorting. The Afghan state spent approximately $11bn each year, but raised only $2.5bn of its own resources, the report finds. Echoing previous studies it suggests it would have taken 35 years for the state to become self funding, leaving the Afghan state locked into an open-ended dependence on external aid. Click here to read more (external link).
Pakistan Names New Army Chief amid Political Turmoil
Munir
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
November 24, 2022
ISLAMABAD — Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Thursday nominated the former head of Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, the country’s main intelligence agency, as head of the powerful military amid deepening political turmoil in the country.
Officials said Sharif chaired a meeting of his cabinet to pick General Asim Munir from a list of six senior generals to replace General Qamar Jawed Bajwa, set to retire next week, as the new chief of army staff.
Defense Minister Khawaja Asif announced the decision in a post-meeting statement, saying it has already been sent to President Arif Alvi for his mandatory approval.
Munir will take command of Pakistan’s nuclear-armed military from Bajwa on Nov. 29 at a ceremony at the general headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, adjacent to the capital, Islamabad.
As well as heading the ISI, Munir has commanded Pakistani troops in areas bordering Afghanistan and arch-rival India.
The nomination of the new military chief comes amid an intensified debate over the even deepening interference of the institution in political affairs.
Bajwa’s leadership, in particular, has exposed the powerful military to severe public criticism lately, led by former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The 70-year-old politician alleges Sharif and Bajwa colluded with the United States to orchestrate the toppling of his government in April through a parliamentary no-confidence vote. The cricket-star-turned populist deposed leader has not offered any evidence to substantiate his claims.
However, Khan has lately toned down his anti-Bajwa rhetoric, saying that even if the general had not been involved in his removal he could still have saved his government.
On Wednesday, Bajwa formally rejected Khan’s allegations in his last nationally televised address to families of fallen soldiers at the Pakistan military headquarters.
“A fake and false narrative was concocted to create a state of hysteria in the country,” stated the 62-year-old general.
But Bajwa admitted his institution had been meddling in national politics for decades, occasionally exposing it to public criticism.
“I believe the major reason has been the military’s interference in politics for the past 70 years, which is unconstitutional,” the outgoing general said. “Therefore, in February last year the military decided after a lot of deliberation that it would never again interfere in any political matter in future.”
Bajwa did not, however, explain what prompted the military to disengage from politics, and critics swiftly questioned his claims.
Pakistan has experienced four military coups against elected governments since gaining independence in 1947, leading to more than three decades of dictatorial rule.
Bajwa became army chief in 2016 for a mandated three-year term and was given an extension for three years in 2019 by then-Prime Minister Khan.
“I would take Bajwa’s plea for the Army to get out of politics with many grains of salt,” said Michael Kugelman, the director of South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, when asked for comments on claims by the incumbent military chief.
“The institution has been so entrenched in Pakistan’s political fabric for so long, that it would be well-nigh impossible to engineer such a sharp shift,” Kugelman said in written comments to VOA.
Pakistani politicians have long accused the military of orchestrating the removal of elected governments that do not fall into line with the powerful institution, particularly when it comes to making foreign and security policies or questioning the military’s commercial interests.
Khan remains the most popular leader in Pakistan and his popularity has skyrocketed since his removal, with his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party sweeping national and provincial by-elections in recent weeks.
Since his removal from office, he has been leading massive protest rallies across the country, with tens of thousands of party supporters attending them.
Khan is pressing Sharif to dissolve his coalition government and announce early general elections in the country. The government has rejected the demand, saying elections will be held only after it completes its constitutionally mandated term by next August.
The deposed prime minister has also accused a senior ISI general along with Sharif and Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah of plotting a shooting attack on his rally earlier this month that left him wounded in the leg and killed one of his supporters. The government and ISI reject the allegations.
On Saturday, Khan plans to lead tens of thousands of supporters in Rawalpindi to push for his demand.
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8am: Sources talking to Hasht-e Subh said that around 5:00 pm on Thursday, November 24, armed men attacked the Taliban outpost in the Chaharbagh Firuzeh area, in the Anjil district of Herat province. Sources added that the conflict between the two sides lasted less than 10 minutes, as a result of which four Taliban forces have been killed and three others are wounded. So far, no group has claimed responsibility and the Taliban has also not provided detail. Click here to read more (external link).
Women Forbidden to Buy SIM Cards in Uruzgan
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1TV Afghanistan Dari News – November 23, 2022
Taliban Arrests a Former Security Official in Faryab on Charges of Collaborating with CIA
8am: The Taliban arrested him on Tuesday night, November 22, in Maimana, the capital of Faryab province, and transferred him to Kabul. His name is Abdul Karim, a national security officer of the former government, and he is a resident of Tekli Khaneh, the third district of Maimana city. This is not the first case the Taliban harass, arrest and torture former security officials. Click here to read more (external link).
‘Kite Runner’ Actor a Two-time Refugee
The Afghan actor Ali Danish Bakhtyari, who played the role of an orphan in the 2007 film “The Kite Runner,” has fled the Taliban rule in his home country twice: first in the late 1990s, and then in 2021, when the United States withdrew its forces from Afghanistan. Keith Kocinski has the story from New York.
Court Rules Dutch State Liable For 2007 Afghan Bombing
AP: A local court in the Netherlands ruled on Wednesday that Dutch forces unlawfully bombed a residential complex in Afghanistan in 2007, and ordered the state to pay financial compensation to the victims. Click here to read more (external link).
US Campaigners Raise Funds for Afghan Blast Survivor
Fatima Amiri
Akmal Dawi
VOA News
November 22, 2022
The explosion at Kaaj educational center in Kabul was so powerful that it lifted 17-year-old Fatima Amiri off the ground before thrusting her slim body several meters away.
“I did not faint,” Amiri told VOA over the phone from her home in Kabul.
“I ran to a nearby hospital on my own,” Amiri said as she described the September 30 explosion, which killed 54 people and injured 114, mostly ethnic Hazara students who are repeatedly attacked by the Islamic State group in Afghanistan.
That she managed to walk to a hospital does not minimize the severity of Amiri’s injuries. She has lost one eye and still has shrapnel in parts of her face.
“I can’t hear in my injured ear, and I can’t eat properly because my jaw hurts badly.”
Despite being traumatized and suffering from her injuries, Amiri last month took what is known as the Kankor exam, an annual test for entry to public universities in Afghanistan. She scored in the top 10 among thousands of applicants.
Amiri’s performance on the exam has secured her admission to Kabul University to study her favorite subject, computer sciences, and gave her hopes for a better future in Afghanistan – a country often reported as the worst place for women.
The Taliban, which returned to power in August of last year, have banned secondary education only for girls with no explanation as to why the ban was imposed and when it will be lifted; however, primary and middle schools as well as universities are open to males and females.
Amiri’s ability to graduate from the four-year study program will largely depend on how much she will be able to heal from the injuries she suffered in September.
Funding campaign
Doctors have told Amiri that she will regain hearing in her left ear only if she can travel abroad for treatment because advanced medical services are not available inside Afghanistan.
She also needs delicate surgery to have the shrapnel removed from her face, repair her jaw, and restore tissue inside her ear.
Like a majority of Afghans, Amiri’s family lives in poverty and cannot afford to send her out of the country for treatment.
Aid agencies say nearly all Afghans have been pushed to poverty over the past year largely due to international sanctions against the Taliban government as well as the cataclysmic social, economic and political changes Afghanistan has seen since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.
On November 9, a Virginia-based Afghan couple launched a US$30,000 crowdfunding campaign for Amiri’s treatment and support. As of November 22, the campaign has received more than $33,000 from hundreds of contributors from around the world, according to the organizer, Farhad Darya.
While the campaigners have raised more funds than expected, they still face obstacles implementing their goals.
Sending the funds to Amiri’s family in Kabul will be extremely complicated because of international financial sanctions imposed on Afghanistan.
Securing a passport, visa and flight tickets for Amiri also comes with hurdles because most embassies are closed in Afghanistan and Taliban authorities have restricted passport issuance.
“We are tirelessly working to get her to India or Turkey, but Afghanistan has diplomatic relations with no country and this is time-consuming and not easy,” Darya told VOA.
Uncertain future
Under the Taliban, the young Amiri, a Hazara, suffers double discrimination because of her gender and ethnicity.
“Women have been erased from public life and their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights disregarded,” Richard Bennett, U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, reported last month.
The ethnic Hazaras, a religious minority, have long complained about discrimination and even persecution in Afghanistan.
“I have still not lost all my hopes for the future,” Amiri said in Dari, one of the two official languages in Afghanistan in addition to Pashto.
“I have a lot of aspirations to serving my country in the future.”
It is, however, not clear what work opportunities will be available for a young Hazara woman after Amiri’s expected graduation from Kabul University in 2027. For now, the ruling Taliban have set up a men-only government and banned women even from going to public parks and sport centers.
Taliban officials say their restrictions on women’s rights are based on Islamic laws – a claim challenged by many Muslim scholars inside and outside Afghanistan as erroneous.
“This will change too,” Amiri said about the current situation facing Afghan women.
Critics lament exclusion of Afghanistan from COP27
Al Jazeera: Call for funding grows for diplomatically isolated Afghanistan, which has faced natural disasters because of climate change. As the climate summit kicked off on November 6, the UN mission in Afghanistan called for urgent collective climate action, saying the country is “one of the least prepared against climate shocks”. It added that Afghanistan is the sixth most affected in the world by climate-related threats, with the country facing frequent droughts, flash floods and landslides affecting livelihoods and infrastructure. Click here to read more (external link).