KABUL (PAN): Leader of the Afghanistan's Parliamentary Party, Mirwais Yasini, the first deputy speaker of the Lower House, has formally announced his intention to field himself as candidate for the president's office in the August 20 presidential polls.
A statement issued here on Monday said Yasini has expressed his intent to challenge the sitting incumbent President Hamid

Karzai in Afghanistans upcoming presidential elections.

"Yasini now stands in open opposition to what he describes as the 'lack of effective governance' within the Karzai administration," the statement said.

It said Yasini believed that a 'peaceful, democratic, developed, drug-free, prosperous, sovereign and united Afghanistan' is achievable only under a right government team, selected on the basis of merit and professionalism alone'.

"As the leader of the largest parliamentary party in the lower house, Yasinis declaration comes as yet another significant blow to the legitimacy of the Karzai government, which has been castigated by the Obama administration in recent months for its incompetence and ineffectiveness," the statement claimed.

Background: Mirwais Yasini was born in 1962 in the Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan, and he received his LLB in Sharia and Law in 1991 from International University, Islamabad, Pakistan. In 1992, he was admitted to the Masters of Law program at International Islamic University and earned his degree in 1993. He spent two years fighting the Soviet occupation with the Mujahideen in 1978-79, and worked in active opposition to the Taliban regime for eight years (1993 to 2001) as a social and political activist.

After the fall of the Taliban in 2002, Yasini was appointed as the first Director of the Red Cross in Nangarhar.

He went on to become the Director of Foreign Relations and Economic Evaluation for the Ministry of Finance.

Also in 2002, he was elected a member of the Emergency Loya Jirga, which met in Kabul.

In 2003, Mr. Yasini was appointed Director General of the Counter Narcotics Department of the National

Security Council of Afghanistan. He was also an elected member of the Constitutional Loya Jirga and was

elected as the Loya Jirgas First Deputy Speaker with the majority of votes. In 2005, Yasini was appointed Deputy Minister, Ministry of Counter Narcotics in the Government of Afghanistan. Later in 2005, Yasini was elected to the lower house of the Afghan Parliament, representing his home province of Nangarhar.

Pr/ma