Afghans to elect their president not regional capitals: Ghani

KABUL would elect their president and Islamabad, Moscow and Tehran have no right to interfere in the country’s democratic process.

The president said this while addressing the youth from southern provinces on Friday evening, a statement from the Presidential Palace said.

It quoted the president as saying that those who feared the masses wanted the establishment of a temporary government, but strategies in foreign or made by foreigners never worked in this country.

Around 400 youth from Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul and Uruzgan provinces debated for three days different issues faced by the people Loy Kandahar and shared them with the president.

The president said the Loy Kandahar people had rendered huge sacrifices in the defence of the country and deserved peace and stability.

Youth representatives Mohammad Ibrahim Ebrat and Shagufa Noorzai hailed President Ghani’s decisive stance against powerful individuals, reforms, peace, transit trade, economic policies and water management strategies and appreciated his achievements in these areas.

The youth gifted a shawl to the First Lady and suggested that the president should name a state medal after Malika Surya and confer it on women who served the country extraordinarily.

They also asked the President to pay attention to the development of almond farming in Zabul, wheat in Kandahar and water in Helmand and agriculture in Uruzgan province.

The president welcomed the youth of the Loy Kandahar and dubbed them as the country’s valuable asset.

The president promised investment in water management and increasing the price of water flowing to neighbouring countries. He said a Turkish company would soon start work on the Kajaki Dam to increase water storage level.

He said resources had been made available for the Dahla Dam in Kandahar and studies of other dams were underway. In near future around 600 hectares of land would be brought under irrigation, through which the country would become self-sufficient in wheat production.

Ghani said the country’s economy never grew with foreign aid, but through national programmes and utilization of own resources.

“I agreed the world, drug smugglers and terrorists to accept peace and stability in the country,” he said.

He stressed that the people of Afghanistan would elect their president, not Moscow, Tehran or Islamabad.

nh/ma

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