Abdullah promises end to insecurity, graft

KABUL (Pajhwok): A day after his two election campaigners were gunned down in western Herat province, presidential contender Dr. Abdullah Abdullah on Sunday said he would enforce laws across-the-board and do away with insecurity and administrative corruption if elected in the April elections.

Unknown gunmen shot dead two officials of Abdullah’s campaign office in Herat City as they came out of the office.

Addressing a huge gathering of his supporters in Kabul to mark the campaign’s first day, Abdullah said his team had sketched out comprehensive and thoughtful programmes in various fields and he would remain committed to implementing those plans.

Enforcing laws equally, maintaining security, ensuring good governance, strictly fighting corruption, alleviating poverty, creating jobs, facilitating returnees, strengthening relations with the international community on the basis of mutual respect and sustaining economic growth were among Abdullah’s future programmes if elected.       

His first-vice presidential pick, Mohammad Khan, who is a senior Hezb-i-Islami led by Hadi Arghandiwal, asked the Independent Election Commission, the government and foreigners to avoid hurting the trust of people in the electoral process and let them to choose their preferred candidate. He said a peaceful transition of power was in the interest of Afghanistan, the region and the international community.

Criticising the government, Mohammad Muhaqqiq, Abdullah’s second vice-presidential running mate, said the country’s situation remained as it had been 13 years ago in terms of security and economy.  

He said the government had drastically failed to meet people’s demands and vowed if they won the elections, most of the current government’s policies would be changed.

 “The trends the Presidential Palace has developed include the use of helicopters to arrive at the Loya Jirga tent, not visiting provinces and ignoring irregularities in contracts to the tune of millions of dollars. All these trends would be reversed,” Muhaqqiq said.

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