KABUL (Pajhwok): Presidential candidate Faramarz Tamana has termed President Ashraf Ghani’s ‘extravagant’ spending as election campaign before schedule and hails US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad’s efforts for peace and reconciliation.
Addressing a round table here, Tamana said peace was the dream of the people of Afghanistan and the nation was ready to render any sacrifice to achieve this goal.
“We are ready to offer our heads and finances if peace has not become a project or achieved under a deal,” he said.
He deplored dozens of youth lost their lives for the defence of the country but still some individuals and groups tried to peruse their personal interests.
Tamana maintained peace was not possible without active engagement of youth, civil societyactivists, political parties and intellectuals.
He hailed the role played by the US envoy and stressed there was need for a team of advisors who could work on a strategy which would ultimately pave the ground for intra-Afghan talks.
He also termed the continuation of President Ashraf Ghani’s work in office as a coup on the people of Afghanistan, democracy and Constitution and stressed Chief Executive Officer Abdullah and President Ghani could no longer use their special authorities after they registered as presidential candidates in January.
He also criticized the release of Taliban prisoners by the president and added a person could not command peace and war at the same time.
Tamana termed the inauguration of small projects, second time inauguration, release of Taliban prisoners, offering Eid bonus to government employees, release of women cash quota and other efforts as part of election campaign and said the president in respect to educational, political and legal morality should quit the power.
He maintained the Election Commission was facing budget issues and lack of employees, adding the president should allot available funds to the commission instead of spending them on his own campaign.
But Abdul Aziz Ibrahimi, deputy spokesman of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), said the international community had pledged to provide funds for the upcoming polls.
He said $23 million had been provided and more funds would be provided in line with the operational plan of the IEC.
nh/ma

Add new comment

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Download “Pajhwok” mobile App, to read and access latest news, features, interviews, videos and photos about Afghanistan.