Former spy-chief Rahmatullah Nabil has lambasted the Afghan government for playing a very superficial and marginal role in the vital peace process of Afghanistan.

He wrote on his Facebook handle that the government, as a grand umbrella for the people of Afghanistan, has failed to strongly and seriously ensure the republican system and political independence enshrined in the Constitution.

“The current leadership of the government has made a very shameful effort to promote populism and the abnormality of political behavior in the form of disgrace, bigotry, and weakening of values and institutions. Sadly, this process of free fall from national values, priorities and interests still continues rapidly.”

The former chief of National Directorate of Security (NDS) criticized that the strings of the launch of peace negotiations with the Taliban, their postponement and re-launch have all been pulled by the US while the Afghan had no chance to speak out its decision in this regard – something that is still the case.

Nabil believed that President Ashraf Ghani’s recent decision to hand over the release of 400 prisoners to the Consultative Jirga (Loya Jirga) was meant to deceive public opinion, was a waste of public time and a waste of public property.

If the government had the protection of the interests of people in view, it would have protested against the non-release of these dangerous Taliban prisoners, who are not anonymous, from the very beginning when it received the list, Nabil maintained.

He added that the people of Afghanistan are already aware of the outcome of the Consultative Jirga, which is none other than the government conceding to release the 400 inmates. “The government only wants to dodge the responsibility of these inmates onto the public as authorities at ARG want to profiteer in terms of maintaining their posts.”

According to him, bringing real peace to Afghanistan can be achieved with good intentions, transparent and inclusive management and creating an atmosphere of national trust; not with fictitious and governmental Jirgas, a large part of which are constituted of the same government employees and patrons.

It’s pertinent to mention that the Afghan government has so far released around 4,600 people from the Taliban’s 5,000 list. The remaining 400 prisoners are said to have committed crimes against humanity, including murder, drug trafficking, kidnapping, and so on; therefore, the government reasons that the Loya Jirga should give mandate on their release.

The Loya Jirga is slated to launch on the upcoming August 7 while the parliament hasn’t announced its stance on this grand assembly.

http://www.afghanistantimes.af/nabil-flays-govt-for-perfunctory-role-in-afghan-peace/