Taliban Dissolves Key Ministries And Election Commission In A Bizarre Governance Move
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Roshan Amiri
- . December 27, 2021
- . Update: December 27, 2021 7:25 pm
Afghanistan– Taliban has dissolved Afghanistan’s election commissions as well as the country’s state ministries for peace and parliamentarian affairs. This has been confirmed by news reports. Further, according to a formal statement made by Bilal Karimi, deputy spokesman for Afghanistan’s Taliban-run government, the country’s Independent Election Commission and Electoral Complaint Commission have also been dissolved.
Apart from throwing the state of women into the dark ages of control and discrimination, the dissolvement comes with a justification that, these are “unnecessary institutions for the current situation in Afghanistan.” Karimi added that if there is a need for the commissions in the future, the Taliban government can revive them.
There is a certain undecidedness over Taliban’s intent, which 20 years ago had led to peculiar autocratic rule without any semblance of a democracy. Both election commissions were mandated to administer and supervise all types of elections in the country, including presidential, parliamentary and provincial council elections.
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Karimi said the Taliban also dissolved the Ministry for Peace and the Ministry of Parliamentarian Affairs. He said they were unnecessary ministries in the government’s current structure. The Taliban government has still not been recognized widely. US has obviously not agreed to its way of governance, but Taliban has sent back home a strict message- ‘we don’t want American interference.’
Meanwhile, Taliban governed Afghanistan is now gearing towards boosting its exports as foreign aid is finally ending. According to the Taliban deputy foreign minister Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, “Humanitarian aid cannot solve Afghanistan’s economic problems. The only way to achieve economic self-sufficiency is to boost domestic products and export them abroad.”
Foreign aid made up of literally 40percent of the country’s economy, according to official figures shared by the World Bank. The United States was the largest contributor, a sum of $9 billion which was stopped after the unfortunate takeover by Taliban. The government is now forced to get into a self sufficiency mode. In 2020, the country imported most of its essential items worth around $9 billion.
Exports accounted for just over $800 million and consisted of agricultural products such as pine nuts and dried fruits mainly to China, Pakistan and Iran. As the economy has fallen apart over the last four months, the United Nations has warned that more than half the country’s nearly 40 million people are facing acute hunger and a million children could die as a consequence.
