Parliament

KABUL (Pajhwok): Returning from a 45-day winter break, the Meshrano Jirga or upper house of parliament on Monday decided not to hold the house administrative board’s elections for next legislative session.
But a parliamentary group warned the house management would be disrupted if the board elections did not take place in-time.
The Meshrano Jirga on January 17 decided not to conduct the administrative board elections until two-thirds of new members of the upper house were introduced.

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Wolesi Jirga (WJ), or lower house of parliament, on Monday approved the draft budget for 2016 after necessary changes and a12 billion afghanis addition to the outlay.
Earlier, the assembly rejected by a majority vote the draft budget for the current fiscal year on account of what lawmakers called serious imbalances and other problems.
Afghanistan’s fiscal year begins on December 22. The draft budget was approved by the Council of Ministers and the Meshrano Jirga sent it to the Wolesi Jirga with some recommendations.

KABUL (Pajhwok): Some members of the Meshrano Jirga or Senate on Sunday asked the government to urgently appoint a new mayor of Kabul City.
Former mayor Mohammad Younus Nawandesh had resigned last year and his deputy, who had been heading the municipality as acting mayor, was dismissed two weeks ago.
“There is no responsible person to respond to problems of Kabul residents since the acting mayor was fired two weeks ago,” Senator Farhad Sakhi told Sunday’s session of the upper house

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Saturday promised the schedule for parliamentary and district council polls would be announced on Monday.
IEC Chairman Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani held out the promise to the Wolesi Jirga, which had summoned him to provide lawmakers with information on the parliamentary and district council elections.
Nuristani said the commission taken measures to prevent a repeat of past mistakes, including in the appointment of short-term workers, improving conditions inside polling stations and other areas.

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Wolesi Jirga or lower house of parliament on Wednesday asked the government to introduce nominees for the slots of defence minister, the spymaster and heads of the Attorney General Office and the Afghan Red Crescent Society for a vote of confidence as soon as possible.
Woelsi Jirga speaker Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi said acting ministers and departmental heads could not perform duty for a period of more than two months under the national Constitution, asking the government not violate the law.

KABUL (Pajhwok): The acting defence minister on Tuesday said regional and local rivalries had led to the creation of extremist groups in Afghanistan, urging unity among the Afghans to deal with the complex situation.
Masoom Stanikzai, acting National Directorate of Security (NDS) chief Massoud Andrabi and Deputy Interior Minister Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ayub Salangi were summoned by the Meshrano Jirga or Senate to brief the upper house about the country’s security situation.

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Wolesi Jirga’s commission on counternarcotics on Tuesday handed over evidence regarding tax evasion amounting to one billion dollars on fuel imports for foreign troops to the government.
Lawmaker Mohammad Naeem Lalai Hamidzai, the parliamentary panel head, told a press conference here that some traders and importers of fuel had been exempted from customs duties on fake documents to import fuel for foreign troops.

KABUL (Pajhwok): Some Wolesi Jirga or lower house of parliament members on Monday welcomed a quadrilateral meeting in Islamabad aimed at reviving the stalled peace talks.
Lawmaker Lalai Hamidzai from southern Kandahar province said a strong determination for peace had developed in the country, something not found in the previous government.
He said peace talks had taken place with Pakistan in the past as well, but now the US and China could put pressure on Pakistan to use its influence over Taliban and bring them to the negotiating table and prevent them violence.

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Wolesi Jirga on Wednesday approved a presidential decree on the management of electricity services and payment of power bills on a monthly basis.
A member of the house communications commission, Syed Ikramuddin Masoomi placed before lawmakers the decree on energy security and expansion of power infrastructure and services.
House commission heads had debated the decree before it was put to vote, Masoomi told Wednesday’s general session of the assembly.

KABUL (Pajhwok): A parliamentary panel on Tuesday said it had found that 90 percent of imported fuel for foreign forces in Afghanistan had been sold in the market, earning 20 companies and some government officials more than $1 billion in untaxed profit.
Mohammad Naeem Lalai Hameedzai, who heads the Wolesi Jirga commission on counter-narcotics, told reporters here that the 20 contractors had provided only 10 percent of the imported fuel to foreign forces over the past four years and sold the rest in the open market.

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