WJ summons sacked finance minister next week

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Wolesi Jirga or lower house of the parliament on Wednesday criticized the sacking of the finance minister and accused the government of taking hostage the next year’s budget plan.

The house also said that former finance minister Abdul Hadi Arghandiwal would be summoned for explanations next week.

After four months of service, President Ashraf Ghani sacked Minister of Finance Abdul Hadi Arghandiwal and replaced him with Khalid Painda.

The presidential decree cited delays in revenue collection, non-cooperation with a joint committee investigating illegal pensions in MoF and obstruction of such investigations for Arghandiwal’s removal.

However, Arghandiwal rejected these allegations as baseless and said that he was removed over opposing procurement of 18 types of different meat for Administrative Office of the President (AOP) and prevention of interferences from some circles in the Presidential Palace.

The Wolesi Jirga today discussed the issue and a number of lawmakers asked for summoning of the former finance minister for explanation of the matter.

Ziauddin Zia, a lawmaker from Samangan province, said that the parliament had given Arghandiwal the trust vote to serve as finance minister and he was removed from his position unreasonably.

He said that the former minister should be summoned to the house to expose the government’s secret plans.

A number of other members of the house held similar views. The lower house finally decided with a majority vote to summon Aghandiwal to the house.

Wolesi Jirga speaker, Mir Rahman Rahmani, said that Arghandiwal was removed from his position because he followed administrative rules and protected national assets.

“It is a matter of regret when people who have taken the trust vote from this house are removed without any justifiable reasons but those who are not granted the vote by the house still continue their jobs. These unlawful actions have caused the public to lose trust in the government, history will judge about it,” he said.

He asked judicial organs of the country not to keep silence over violations and those accused of embezzling public assets should be investigated.

Some other lawmakers accused the Presidential Palace and the National Security Council of taking hostage the next year’s budget plan.

“The government has no will for budget and it does not care about it, we should have approved the third draft of the budget yesterday, but they did not even include the budget in the cabinet’s agenda,” he said.

The house was expected to rise for winter recess on January 19, but lawmakers said they would not go on recess and would not approve the budget until balance was maintained in provincial allocations and salaries of government teachers, officers and soldiers equalized.

“Some corrupt and thieve figures in the government are trying to propaganda against this Jirga, but the decision of this house would not change until the demands of the public are implemented,” he said. However, he did not provide details on the regard.

Pointing to some lawmakers’ statements claims against him, Rahmani said, “If I have a single afghani benefit from this budget plan you can remove that part, conspiracy cannot change the decision of the house.”

The government had said that the lower house has taken hostage the budget plan as some lawmakers were against the inclusion of fuel contracts for the security ministries in the budget draft.

mds/ma