Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Kabul (BNA) President Hamid Karzai chaired the plenary session of the Council of Ministers at the presidential palace yesterday.
The information and public relation department of administrative office said BNA, to begin with, the chairmen of independent election commission and election complaint commission assured the CM session about adequate budget, necessary, readiness for carrying of technical and operational aspects of presidential and provincial councils’ elections in 1393 and added that regrettably in some instances government officials are interfering to the interest of some candidates.
They added that in certain instances the local authorities are preparing necessary facilities for candidates of their choice that are not accessible for all the candidates so it is necessary that these two shortcomings are removed immediately.
President Karzai instructed the independent election commission and the election complaint commission for holding transparent election free from interference of government officials in this process and added:
• President does not support the specific candidate so any individuals including the government and non-governmental individuals who misuse their authorities under the name of the president, they are not representing the president and they should referred to the related sources,
• No individuals including the government officials have no right to interfere, pressurize any one or use government possibilities during the election.
• Both the commissions are assigned to recognize and identify interventions of government officials and those using government means and report about it to the presidential office.
The Council of Ministers welcomed direct talks between the Pakistani Taliban Tehrek and the government of Pakistan started last week and evaluated as a good step and expressed the hope that the talks lead to end of fratricide and restoration of lasting peace in that country and in the region.
The CM once again asked the Afghan Taliban to start peace talks with the High Peace Council of Afghanistan for restoration of peace, stability and general participation in the election process and governance.
Minister of Foreign Affairs presented three agreements to the CM concluded earlier including the agreement of development cooperation between Afghanistan and Denmark, document on technical measures between Afghanistan and Canada and the development and encouraging of investment between the US and Afghanistan.
The CM waived off the debts owed by the friendly countries as per these agreements till the end of 2013 and assigned the ministers of foreign affairs, finance and commerce and industries to analyze the agreements and in case they are not to the interest of the country they should dissolve them in 2014.
At the end, foreign minister presented the convention for creation of international peddling convention and the demand of the government of Afghanistan for membership at that convention between the Kabul Polytechnic University and Technical University of Rega (Latvia) which was approved by the cabinet.
