Senate deputy urges government to fight corruption from within the Presidential Palace  

Slogans of fighting against corruption have been heard since 14 years ago, but nothing or less have been done regarding the issue and people always complain of a widespread corruption in government institutions.

This comes as President Ghani in his recent speech told people especially Ulema (Scholars) to consider corruption a stigma for the system and announced of a Jihad (Holy War) against corruption.

“I demand the two leaders to start fighting against corruption from within the Presidential Palace and continue it to the other governmental institutions till they can gain people’s trust,” Muhammad Alam Izad Yar, deputy of Senate said.

The new government has both a practical and philosophical potential to reduce and eradicate corruption. At the moment people do not believe the government can fight corruption. If the government took practical and well-publicised steps to tackle it, perceptions would begin to change.

Meanwhile, the Transparency Administration has also voiced concern over corruption in governmental institutions, saying a number of powerful with political influence support corruption in Afghanistan system.

Afghanistan is one of the most corrupt nations in the world. Supposedly North Korea and Somalia lies on one and second in the rank; Afghanistan being the third.

A huge concern among many diplomatic and military leaders is that Afghan corruption drives people to support the Taliban. Many cite corruption as the number one threat to the government of Afghanistan; with the Taliban as a lesser threat.

Throughout the past 13 years, high levels of corruption and bad governance have seriously thwarted the international community’s efforts to stabilise Afghanistan.

Millions of dollars that were allocated for the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan were misused or wasted.

At present, the government is preoccupied with the country’s worsening security situation, economic recession, and peace talks with insurgents, which have all but monopolised its attention for the past several months. Nevertheless, the leadership must not lose sight of other important issues like systemic governmental failures and corruption.