Tolo TV Headlines

On Sunday the High Board of Judiciary in the Presidential Office warned that officials or organs that fail to implement the recently issued presidential decree will be punished. Speaking to the media, the head of the judicial board, Nasrullah Stanikzai, said that if corruption exists in the Presidential Palace or elsewhere the decree is meant to fight against it. President Karzai included all the priorities and challenges that people and the Government face, including good governance, accountability,the fight against corruption and security maintenance Stanikzai said. Regarding impeachment of authorities by the Parliament, Stanikzai said that in accordance to article 92 of the Afghan Constitution, the Lower House only has the authority to impeach Cabinet Ministers, nobody else.

On Sunday NAI, Supporting Open Media in Afghanistan, warned that the recently issued Presidential Decree the Government attempts to impose restrictions on freedom of expression and freedom of media and it will create lots of challenges for the media and journalists. The decree text indicates that the Government no longer supports freedom of expression and media, the head of media watchdog, Sediqullah Tawhidi, said. The decrees orders the Ministry of Information and Culture to draft a specific policy for controlling the quality and for identifying minimum standards for public and private media programmes. This draft should be submitted to the cabinet within two months.

The Foreign Ministry Sunday accused Pakistan of supporting the Taliban. "It is clear that if Taliban leaders are living in Pakistan and being supported by them, Pakistan will have a vital role in Afghan peace talks," the MFA spokesperson told reporters in Kabul. Regarding Pakistani rocket attacks into Afghanistan, the spokesman said that the Government will talk with Pakistan so that attacks will not be repeated. Terrorist hideouts inside Pakistan are threatening regional and international security, the spokesman added.

In the past 24 hours the Pakistani military has fired nearly 250 rockets into border areas in Kunar province.

The United States is ready to support the Afghan Government in arresting Najiba’s executers. Najiba was a young woman who was publically executed by the Taliban in the Shinwari district of Parwan province. Violence against women is a crime and Islam forbids such acts, the US embassy in Kabul said. Meanwhile, a delegation of the Lower House's women affairs and civil society committee paid a visit to Parwan in order to investigate Najiba’s case. They urged the Government to take serious steps to arrest Najiba's executioners. It is alleged that this year the Taliban have executed 11 women in the Shinwari district of Parwan.

A number of high ranking Government officials are trying to bring down Ariana Afghan Airline face recession, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Nasir Ahmad Hakimi, told an economic committee. Hakimi revealed that recently President Karzai has issued a decree pardoning dues owed to the airline from the Ministries of Defense, Transport and Haj. MPs also alleged that corruption exists within the Airline.

On Sunday former officials of the Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA) who resigned over increased corruption in their organization met with Parliamentary representatives.

Shamshad TV Headlines

Public officials and organs will be prosecuted for neglecting to implement the recently issued Presidential decree, the head of High Board of Judiciary of Presidential Office, Nasrullah Stanikzai said. The Lower House, the Office of Administrative Affairs, Cabinet Ministers, the National Security Council and the Attorney-General’s Office, in cooperation with other organs, will monitor the implementation of the decree said an official.

Pakistani Military fired over 265 rockets into Shegal, Dangam, Narai districts of Kunar over the past 24 hours which injured three Afghan, said Sayed Fazlullah Wahidi, the provincial governor. He rejected the claims of Pakistan's ambassador in Washington, who said that the Pakistani Taliban have a presence in Kunar from which they carry out attacks against Pakistan.

The National Directorate of Security (NDS) in a press release said that it has detained eight would-be suicide bombers and bomb planters in Kandahar and three bomb planters in Logar provinces. Three militant groups have joined the peace process in Badghis, the NDS said.

In an interview with the New York Times the outgoing American Ambassador, Ryan Crocker, said that some leaders of the Taliban stand totally against any form of reconciliation while others want to pursue peace. A Taliban spokesman rebutted that the Taliban are united and have a unified stand regarding peace talks and they always keep political and military doors open. It’s the US that uses the tactic of one step forward and two steps backward, the Taliban said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected as baseless reports that Pakistan will expel all Afghan refugees from the country by the end of the current year. The Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that the agreement between Afghanistan, Pakistan and UNHCR is still applicable.

MPs Allah Gul Mujahid and Maulavi Tarakhil Sunday rejected media reports that their guards have clashed. Speaking at the Lower House Complaints commission, they urged the Ministry of Information and Culture to reassess these reports. However, a reporter who reported on the incident said he quoted the Kabul police chief, the head of criminal investigations and the head of a Government hospital in the area.
 

Hasht-e-Subh Daily

An Afghan MP, Hamidullah Tokhi, accused a number of legislators of making deals and paying money to the Taliban to protect their lives while traveling to some provinces. Tokhi told RFE/RL that some of his colleagues were releasing the Taliban members from the Government detention centres. Tokhi also alleged that a number of MPs, provincial governors and high-level Government officials were paying to the Taliban to destabilize some provinces.

The spokesman of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Janan Musazai, said release of [Afghan] Taliban from the Pakistan’s jails and ensuring the lives of the Taliban who want to hold negotiations with the Afghan Government were among main measures that Pakistan can adopt to facilitate the Afghan peace process.

Qazi Abdul Naser, the head of provincial department of Borders and Tribal Affairs of Kunduz, said that thousands acres of agricultural lands have been washed away as result of water overflow from the Amu River in Imam Sahib and Qala-i-Zal districts of the province.

An official from the Ministry of Information and Culture denied media reports that the ministry was trying to stop a local radio station from reporting about an ongoing gun battle between two MPs in Kabul last Friday.

Mandegar Daily

The Presidential anti-graft decree, issued due to mounting international pressures in the Tokyo Conference and Chicago summit, will create new disputes, said the head of Central Audit Commission of the Lower House of Parliament, Abdul Hafiz Mansoor.

Sarnavesht Daily

Afghan national army and NATO troops killed three civilians, including a child, during a joint operation in the Chaharband area of Maidan Wardak province last night, a witness told the daily.

Daily Afghanistan

At the National Security Council’s Meeting, which was presided by President Karzai on Sunday, the head of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), Fazil Ahmad Manawi presented his detailed plan for voter registration process. The meeting decided to further discuss about the implementation of the IEC’s plan and the measures that the Government needs to adopt to ensure facilities for organizing the elections in the upcoming meetings.

Verbal dispute between two cousins in Qarabagh district of Kabul province left four people dead, including a women and six others wounded.

Police arrested a 40-year-old man, who was abusing her 18-year-old daughter sexually in Anjil district of Herat province, said a senior local police official.

State Media Editorials

Kabul Times Daily

The Afghan Government is committed to conduct free, fair, transparent and inclusive elections in 2014 and 2015, in which all the people of Afghanistan participate freely without internal or external interference. We hope the pledges made by the International community in Tokyo conference would be implemented in useful manner and our countrymen would benefit from the commitments.

Private Media Editorials

Hasht-e-Subh Daily

To ensure the security in the Central Asia and also the border areas between Afghanistan and Tajikistan, the international community and NATO should provide support. Afghanistan currently faces deadly battle against the terrorists in its southern and eastern borders and it cannot stand alone to fight insurgency along its northern borders. But any support from the international community and NATO can help Afghanistan handle the issue. In order to root out terrorism, in addition to expansion of security cooperation between the regional countries, the world needs to put pressure on Pakistan to no longer provide its soil and others possibilities for the terrorists.

Erada Daily

The simple way to end border shelling from Pakistan was that the Afghan Government should have acted based on the deadline it had issued and should have conveyed its complaint to the UN Security Council. Why this has not taken place yet or why a similar action has not been adopted by the Government is a difficult question.

Weesa Daily

Administrative corruption considered as the mother for all existing issues, while political corruption is the main source of miseries in the country. A letter sent to Pakistani embassy by the leader of Hezb-e-Wahdat-e-Islami Afghanistan, Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq, could be a good example of political corruption. The exposition of international intelligence on Afghanistan and monitoring of journalistic documents indicates that only tiny number of political figures are behind miseries, wars, crisis, and ethic differences. They always serve the foreigners, its Government’s duty to save people form harms of these circles. We wish that a sense to differ politics from triviality will woke up in all the three pillars of the government. They should give priorities to the fight against political corruption.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Herat (RTA) Headlines

Herat Deputy Governor said that Government was working with the local officials to create more job opportunities for the daily laborers, adding local officials were in negotiation with the World Food Programme (WFP) to launch food for work programmes.

Police arrested an Iranian citizen on charges of drug smuggling.