President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday described corruption as one of the key elements of poverty and security threats in the country and that the trend also hinders implementation of the law and justice.

“Corruption and injustice hinders the implementation of the constitution and, finally, corruption is the key element of poverty and insecurity,” said Ghani.

Speaking on International Anti-Corruption Day, Ghani said that those who claim to be front runners in bringing about reform, shouldn’t have a negative impression from the government’s reform policy.

“Whenever we talk about reform, some people think that the pioneers of reform want to dig a pit for others and they have a negative impression of reform,” said Ghani.

He also called on the media, public and civil society institutions to help government in its efforts towards fighting corruption in the country.

Meanwhile, Second Vice President Mohammad Sarwar Danish also addressed the gathering, in which he highlighted the government’s achievements in the field of the rule of law, war on corruption and the ratification of access to information act, plus the mines law.

This comes at a time that anti-corruption bodies have been accusing the government of manipulating these laws.