Reg: No 352 Volume No. 3451 Tuesday November 29, 2016 Qaws 09, 1395 www.outlookafghanistan.net Price: 15/-Afs

Quote of the Day

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All wrong-doing arises because of mind.

If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain?

Buddha

IMAMNAZAR STATION - Turkmenistan opened a rail-way link to Afghanistan on Monday to boost exports of fuel.The former Soviet republic mostly exports natural gas and its revenues have dwin-dled after Moscow, once the main buyer, halted purchases this year, leading to a short-age of foreign currency in the isolated desert nation.The volume of gas sales to China, the current main buyer, is limited by pipeline capacity.The Turkmen part of the 88-kilometre link ends at the

KABUL - Wolesi Jirga or lower house of parliament mem-bers on Monday again called as against the Constitution the continuation of work by the impeached ministers and asked the government to intro-duce their replacements at the earliest possible.The Wolesi Jirga about two weeks ago summoned 16 min-isters over failing to utilize less than 70 percent of annual budget and voted out the min-isters of foreign affairs, labor and social affairs, public works, education, transport, commu-nication and higher education.The government then referred the matter to the Supreme Court and instructed the im-peached ministers to remain in

Aziz Aryayi Picked as IECC Chief, Humaira as Deputy

RPT-Turkmenistan Launches Railway to Afghanistan to

Boost Exports

Ashgabat Varsity Confers Honorary Doctorate on Ghani

Disabled Artist Raises Funds to Help Others

IEC Pledges to Bring About Electoral Reforms

Ex-IEC Commissioners Still Getting State Perks

4 Detained Smugglers Escape from Nimroz Jail

Afghan Forces Drive Taliban from Badakhshan’s Tagab

WJ to Govt: Unseated Ministers’ Work ‘Illegal’

their jobs until a ruling by the Supreme Court.The lower house in reaction tasked a delegation to take a decision. The delegation on

KABUL - Some ex-commissioners of the Inde-pendent Election Commission (IEC) Monday acknowledged that they are still benefiting from some state assets which belong to the IEC.The perks currently available to these officials include the use of bulletproof vehicles, laptop computers, mobile phones and Hilux escort ve-hicles.This comes after the new secretary of the IEC reported Monday of serious challenges cur-rently facing the election organizing body.“We are trying to overcome the challenges so that the commission can properly start its job with a strong mechanism in place in order to gain public trust,” said Gulab Jan Abdul Badi Sayyad, IEC secretary.he ex-IEC members have refused to comment on camera.However, re-ports indicate there are about 170 vacancies at the IEC, in Kabul and in the provinces, that need to be filled.“The new IEC chief in consul-tation with the government of Afghanistan, we will refer our investigation outcomes to find whether they (ex-IEC officials) have taken any assets, if these assets belong to the commission, they must hand them back ,” Sayyad, added.This revelation comes just days after President Ashraf Ghani ordered the appointment of all ex-IEC commissioners as presidential advisors.“The advisors (ex-IEC officials) will be benefit-ing from the current privileges until they are hired into new jobs,” the order reads.“Giving posts to the ex-commissioners as ad-visors would have two negative consequences. The first implication is that this will help large scale fraud in the future elections and it would be more widespread ,” said Naeem Ayoubza-da, head of Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan (TEFA).Ghani’s order on the ap-pointment of ex-commissioners sparked strong reaction among critics.Similar accusations were made against the IEC officials in past.“The action taken by the president is like politi-cal bribery which is aimed to hide the electoral frauds in 2014,” said Anwarul-Haq-Ahadi, chairman New Afghanistan National Front Party. (Tolonews)

ZARANJ - Four drug smugglers have es-caped from a prison with the help of a pris-on guard in southern Nimroz province, an official said on Monday.The official at the provincial police head-quarters, who wished to go unnamed, told Pajhwok Afghan News three of the four smugglers had been arrested with 20 kilo-grams of opium and hailed from Kangak district.The fourth accused had been arrested with 168 kilograms of heroin in Safar-Marzai area.The source said the detainees escaped from the prison with the aid of a police guard on duty. However, the incident was being in-vestigated. Another police official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the escap-ees had been arrested 20 days ago and their dossiers were scheduled to be dispatched to Kabul two day later. (Pajhwok)

FAIZABAD - Afghan forces recaptured the Tagab district of northeastern Badakh-shan province from Taliban militants, lo-cal officials said on Monday.The governor’s spokesman, Ahmad Navid Frotan, told Pajhwok Afghan News the Taliban were driven from the district during a joint operation of the Af-ghan National Army (ANA), police and public order police. The militants retreat-ed to Yamgan district without putting up resistance, he said.Ground forces commander for 20th Pamir Division, Brig. Gen. Sakhidad Kiftan, said that Taliban militants had been posing security threats on the Faizabad-Takhar highway and the operation was launched to remove the threats.He said work on a plan to recapture Yam-gan and Warduj districts was also under-way but he added they needed help from commando and air forces in this regard.“Authorities in Kabul have pledged to support us and the operation in Yamgan and Warduj districts will be launched in near future”, he said.The Taliban have been in control of Tagab district over the past nine months. (Pajhwok)

Monday termed the stay of the disqualified ministers in of-fice as against the Afghanistan Constitution.The delegation also sent a let-

KABUL - Disabled Afghan artist, Robaba Mohammadi, has tried to raise funds for people like herself through a painting exhibition.Mohammadi, who is 16 years old, is severely disabled and confined to a wheelchair. She paints and sketches with her mouth.Unlike her siblings, she can-not go to school but instead taught herself to draw four years ago by holding a pencil in her mouth.Last week she organized an exhibition in Kabul and said she wanted to make her con-tribution to helping other dis-

KABUL - Officials from the Independent Election Com-mission (IEC) and the In-dependent Electoral Com-plaints Commission (IECC) announced Monday that the two election management bodies have started the nec-essary work to bring about fundamental reforms in the election process.The IEC will prepare the vot-er list and voting centers, of which there are almost 7,000, will be changed, said IEC chief Najibullah Ahmadzai.Head of the IECC Abdul Aziz Aryayee said his organization is also making efforts to iden-tify the vulnerabilities of the election institutions.Meanwhile, Anwarul-e-Haq Ahadi, chairman of New Na-

KABUL - Turkmenistan Pres-ident Gurbanguly Berdimu-hamedow has conferred an honorary doctorate on his Afghan counterpart Moham-mad Ashraf Ghani, the Presi-dential Palace said here on Monday.Ghani received the degree at the Ashgabat Internation-al Oil and Gas University, whose head was quoted as saying: “Your presence here is matter of pride for us and shows the value you attach to education.“You have played an impor-tant role in strengthening bi-lateral relations between the two nations. Similarly, your efforts for promoting peace and stability are also worth praising,” the university chancellor said.While praising the univer-sity administration, the resi-dent said: “Durable bilateral friendship is an important part of our politics. Every Afghan is happy over our friendship with Turkmeni-stan…” Ghani remarked.He commended Turkmeni-stan’s successful holding of

KABUL - The Independent Electoral Complaints Com-mission (IECC) has chosen Abdul Aziz Aryayi as its chief and Humaira Haqmal as his deputy. Ali Raza Roohani was picked secretary and spokes-man for the election body.Roohani told Pajhwok Afghan News after the selection of commissioners, the IEC chief and administrative board members were chosen in a democratic manner.

ter to the government, asking it to introduce other individuals for of a vote of confidence to replace the unseated ministers.The letter was read out by Ab-

abled people.“I want to start a donation ac-tivity (through the art exhibi-tion) and make my little con-tribution to the disabled ones. I will be the first donor and I wish you can also do some-thing,” said Mohammadi.Visitors to the exhibition praised Mohammadi’s art-works that vividly depicted a war-torn Afghanistan.“Nowadays the biggest prob-lem faced by (Afghan) wom-en is the conservative ideas that women should stay in-doors, not interfere with ma-jor government decisions and not ...(More on P4)...(4)

tional Front Party of Afghani-stan, has accused government of paving the ground for fraud in the next elections.He said that the process of reforms within the electoral commissions has not been carried out in a transparent manner, alleging that govern-ment did not value the views of politicians and civil society institutions in the reform pro-cess.But the new IEC and IECC officials on Monday held their second news conference where they pledged to bring about systematic reforms in the voters list and in changing the location of nearly 7,000 polling centers which were established during the 2014 ...(More on P4)...(3)

the Global Conference on Sus-tainable Transport, in Ash-gabat under the United Na-tions aegis. Transport, transit and logistic systems in the Central Asian and Caspian re-gions are part of the process.The Turkmenistan-Afghani-stan-Tajikistan railroad will become the part of Asian in-ternational transport corridor, which will stretch to railroad network of China and farther to markets of the Asian Pacific region.“In the past two years, Turk-menistan has been leading the implementation of inter-national transport strategies. The progress it has made since the Ashgabat Declara-tion is commendable,” the president remarked. He said Turkmenistan, whose bountiful natural resources could pave the ground for fu-ture generations’ prosperity, had emerged as a regional in-tersection. He also welcomed Ashgabat’s continued sup-port to Afghan students.About the TAPI pipeline, Ghani said: “It’s not just a ...(More on P4)...(5)

Ymamnazar customs control point where Turkmenistan has built an oil product ter-minal with an annual capac-ity of 540,000 tonnes.It was unclear by what per-centage the rail link and the terminal could increase Turk-men fuel exports, because Ashgabat does not publish any data on physical volumes of such sales.Turkmenistan produces about 10 million tonnes of oil a year, most of which it refines domestically, and oil products account for about 10 percent of total Turkmen exports. ...(More on P4)...(2)

dul Qayoom Sijadi, a public representative from Ghazni province, at today’s session. In the letter, the government has been asked to respect lawmak-ers’ decisions.The government has been asked to send the electoral re-form legislative decree to the house for approval.The letter said the house wasn’t in favor of any confron-tation with the government and called it against Afghani-stan’s people interests.However, sending the letter to the government was opposed by Ramazan Bashardost, a lawmaker from Kabul.Bashardost wasn’t permitted by the administrative delega-tion to ...(More on P4)...(1)

IECC and Independent Election Commission (IEC) members were announced by the second vice-president, Sarwar Danish, a day earlier.Danish underlined the independ-ence and impartiality of the com-missions, saying their commis-sions should undertake important rules as their primary work.“I on behalf of the government as-sure the commissioners that we will respect the independence of the commissions and provide full

financial, technical and political support to the bodies,” he had said.Danish added the government was also duty-bound to prevent interference from departments and individuals in election com-mission affairs.The IEC administrative board chief and members were ap-pointed on Sunday. Najibullah Ahmadzai was selected as chief, Wasima Badghisi and Abdul Qad-er Quraish. (Pajhwok)