In a new decree on Thursday, President Ashraf Ghani ordered the establishment of a state ministry of tourism affairs, a move which has sparked strong reaction among legal experts with many accusing him of attempting to centralize power for himself.
 
Ghulam Nabi Farahi has been appointed as state minister of tourism affairs.
 
Meanwhile, a number of former government officials have said that the president, by issuing the decree on the establishment of the state ministry of tourism affairs, wants to centralize power.
 
They said that such a move is also aimed to put pressure on the Chief Executive Officer.
 
In addition, a number of legal experts have said that the establishment of the new ministry on the basis of Ghani’s decree is a clear violation of the nation’s constitution and the law.
 
They accused the president of creating parallel institutions for the benefits of others.
 
“He has established a new ministry, this indicates authoritarianism, waywardness and personal decisions which are taken by the president. These decisions appear to be positive, but if you focus on the essence of the issue, this is conflicting,” said legal expert Faizullah Jalal.
 
They said that the Ministry of Information and Culture (MoIC) is already established and there is no need to establish a state ministry of tourism affairs.
 
They said that by creating parallel institutions Ghani wants to exclude those from the structure of government who create obstructions in the way of his programs.
 
“He wants to further strengthen his social status, perhaps he will do something about the chief executive office in the future. For instance, regarding the dismissal of Mr. Ahmad Zia Massoud, first he was describing him as one of the pillars of the square, but later kicked him out,” said former minister of economy Mohammad Amin Farhang.
 
But, the CEO's office says that the establishment of a state ministry of tourism was crucial.
 
“We in the CEO's office have always opposed the creation of parallel institutions. But in some exceptional cases, the government leadership has asked certain individuals to work on some spheres and they called for cooperation,” said CEO spokesman Mujiburrahman Rahimi.
 
It is said that the financial and tourism department of the ministry of information and culture will consist of seven departments and three of the departments are already tasked with tourism affairs.
 
Government spokesmen so far have not given details about the budget which is allocated for the new ministry. However there is speculation that the new ministry will be a separate budget unit.
 
This new development takes place a few days after the president announced the dissolution of the office of his special representative for reforms and good governance, leaving all employees of the concerned office with an uncertain future.