President Ghani yet to meet his 30 advisors

KABUL (Pajhwok):  President Ashraf Ghani has appointed his 30 advisors during the past one year, but they are yet to start their duties owing to financial problems and lack of job descriptions, officials said on Monday.

Of 71 advisors to former president Hamid Karzai, 22 have been sacked and the remaining 49 still performed their duties, said Asadullah Salehi, the head of coordination office of president’s advisors at the Administrative Affairs Office.

He told Pajhwok Afghan News the recently appointed advisors were yet to commence their work due to a lack of budge and job descriptions. There are a total of 79 advisors to the president.

 “The new advisors neither receive salaries nor they meet the president,” Salehi said, adding the coordination office of the advisors at the Administrative Affairs Office had newly been established.

“We are working on job descriptions of the new advisors and will complete this task in a month. After the completion of the job descriptions, they would hold meetings with the president.”

He said they had sent a request to the president regarding salaries and allowances of the advisors and were awaiting his response.

Pajhwok reporter contacted six of the newly appointed advisors who said neither they had any office nor they had visited the president as his advisors.

Advisor to the president on tribes and tribal affairs, Saleh Mohammad Safari, who was appointed on July 11, 2015, thanked the president for placing trust in him.

But he said he was yet to officially meet the president as per his job’s requirement.  With no office and list of responsibilities, he had not yet met the president as his advisor.

His designation is advisor to the president on “tribes and tribal affairs” but Asadullah Saeed is advisor to the president on tribal affairs.

Safari could not differentiate between his and Saeed’s duties and responsibilities as they both held similar positions.

Fazal Karim Aimaq is also advisor to the president on tribal affairs.

Safari has signed his contact with the Administrative Affairs Office about his duties and responsibilities, but he is yet to get a response from the busy office. He hoped to commence his duty after his responsibilities were known.

Five other advisors held similar views, but declined to be named.

According to the website of the Administrative Affairs Office, the new advisors have been appointed in compliance with presidential decrees on the following dates:

Kalil Zamar, advisor to president on prisoners and juvenile affairs, was appointed on Oct, 15, 2014. Asadullah Ghazanfar was appointed Dec, 16, 2014.

Those appointed on May 25, 2015 include Abdul Ali Mohammadi, legal advisor, Brig. Gen. Habibullah Ahmadzai, security advisor, Faizullah Zaki and Abbas Baseer senior advisors, Dr. Najeebullah Mujaddadi as political advisor.

On July, 1, 2015, Abdul Hai Nemati as counter narcotics, Saleh Mohammad Safari as tribes and tribal affairs, Nabi Misdaq as press advisor, Agha Lalai Dastagiri as conflict resolution, Asadullah Saeed as tribal affairs, Ahmadullah Alizai as local governance, Khyal Mohammad Hussaini as social, Hajji Najibullah Nasiri as borders, Humayun Jarir as social affairs, Sayed Mohammad Ali Javed as religious advisor.

On the same date, Shamim Katawazai was appointed as advisor on youth affairs, Ewas Ali Sadat on education, Asadullah Falah on conflict resolution, Haji Alam Kochi on Kochi affairs, Fazal Karim Fazal on media and Dr. Eid Mohammad Ahmadi on social affairs.

Likewise, Sardar Mohammad Roshan was appointed as advisor to president on transparency in development programmes on July, 06, 2015.

Asadullah Salehi said 30 advisors had been appointed over the past one year, but Pajhwok only found information about 26 advisors.

myn/ma

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