Footprints: Glance on Afghan NUG one year efforts

Afghan National Unity Government is one year old, Mohammad Ashraf Ghani as the President and his election rival Abdullah Abdullah as Afghanistan’s Chief Executive, but what are the main achievements of the NUG during the last one year?

After President Ghani assumed the chair on the first days of his government the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) was signed between Kabul – Washington by Afghanistan’s National Security Advisor and U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan.

Ghani vowed to fight against corruption in his government; therefore, he reopened Kabul Bank fraud, the biggest Afghan corruption case, opened a committee under the name of the National Procurement Commission to review all governmental contracts for transparency, six governmental officials from Ministry of Urban Development who were accused of corruption were arrested by police while attempting to escape the country, the NUG also reassessed all contracts belong to the Ministry of Defense.

Afghan President headed to Saudi Arabia to explore Saudi-Afghan relations and preformed Hajj, then he travelled to the Republic of China and singed some Memorandum of Understanding on the economical sector and after that he travelled to the United States of America, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Iran and India to boost his relations.

He drafted five circles on his foreign policy and participated in the following international summits along with his power-sharing partner and other governmental officials: The London Conference on Afghanistan, Munich Security Conference, NATO Wales Summit, 18^th SAARC Summit in Nepal and Afghanistan, Pakistan, and China trilateral meeting.

Kabul for the first time hosted two key conferences the Regional Economic Cooperation Conference for Afghanistan (RECCA) and Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) to attract aids of donor countries for Afghanistan.

The unity government of President Ghani and his election rival Abdullah made some efforts in the good governance affairs sector and to bring peace in Afghanistan. For the first time Taliban and Afghan government hold talks in Pakistan with the mediation of Islamabad, Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) took the responsibilities of security in the country on its own, a commission was tasked to bring reforms in the electoral system, the responsibility of Kabul International Airport was transferred to Afghanistan, a woman was appointed to the Supreme Court of Afghanistan, but failed to secure the required votes from the Parliament, and the last important event was Mullah Omar, the Taliban Supreme Leader’s death announcement which was revealed by Afghan government and was confirmed after two days by Taliban.

The government took the following actions to implement the rule of law in Afghanistan: five hanged for Paghman gang-rape, senior Mafia leader Habib Istalif sentenced to death and was executed, another Mafia boss Rais Khodidad was arrested in Kabul and was hanged to death in Kabul’s Pul-e Charkhi.

Currently, Afghanistan’s Chief Executive is in the New York City and has participated in the United Nations General Assembly to attract the International assistance to Afghanistan.

With the one-year anniversary of the Afghan National Unity Government, Afghans suffer from the lack of security, unemployment and economic issues and widely criticizing the government for failing to fulfill the commitments they have made during elections.

Reported by: Ahmad Farshad Saleh