Members of Afghanistan’s parliament on Monday strongly criticized the government over what they described as a failure to address the issue of caretakers in the government institutions.
There are now three institutions under caretakers in Kabul. These are the Kabul garrison, Kabul police headquarters and Kabul municipality, all run by the caretakers. MPs accused the government of having failed to address the problem.
The MPs argument is that the absence of a commander for the Kabul police headquarters has also left significant impacts on the security situation in the capital at a time that Kabul is also grappling with threats from the insurgents.
Fawad is one of the residents who lost his father on Sunday when unknown armed men assaulted the 500-Family area of the capital city.
“They hit my father by a bullet. What is this government doing, why does it hand out pistols?” asked Fawad, a son of the victim.
Residents say that over the past few weeks the rate of crime and other security-related issues have increased in the city.
“We arrested over 350 criminals in Kabul since last year,” said Mohammad Salim Almas, head of crime investigation department of Kabul police.
Following last June’s deadly attack in Kabul’s diplomatic enclave that killed over 150 people, the government decided to suspend the job of commander of Kabul garrison and police commander under mounting pressures from the members of the Afghan public.
Later the government announced the appointment of general Mohammad Aman Afzal as acting commander of the garrison and Mohammad Salem Ehsas as the commander of Kabul police headquarters.
Kabul’s municipality is also one of the organs is run by a caretaker over the past two years. Abdullah Habibi is currently serving as the acting mayor of Kabul
“Whenever these caretakers are fired from the job, then they claim to be able to continue their job and make demands on the government,” said one MP Mirbat Khan Mangal.
“Caretaker issues directly harm the government of Afghanistan,” said MP Fatima Nazari.
Meanwhile, the ministry of defense and interior affairs have expressed their views about the caretakers in this manner.
“There has not been any kind of work deficiency in the daily operations of the garrison,” said Dawlat Waziri, spokesman for the ministry of defense.
“Qualified and able people will be recruited,” said Nusrat Rahimi, deputy spokesman of the ministry of interior.
Critics say that the work of caretakers in the government institutions have left major impacts on the governance as the caretakers do not feel accountable.
The National Unity Government (NUG) under president Ashraf Ghani and CEO Abdullah Abdullah has been under constant criticism from the Afghan public for their inability to end to the woes of weak governance in institutions run by the caretakers.