Volume No. 4064 Monday December 31, 2018 Jaddi 10, 1397 www.outlookafghanistan.net Price: 20/-Afs

Quote of the Day

Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure,

loyalty, and persistence.Colin Powell

VICE PRESIDENT SARWAR DANISH

www.thedailyafghanistan.comEmail: thedailyafghanistan@yahoo.com

Phone: 0093 (799) 005019/777-005019Add: In front of Habibia High School,

District 3, Kabul, Afghansitan

Success

Second vice-president Sarwar Danish on Sunday introduced new members of the Oversight Commission on Access to Information (OCAI), saying access to information could help reduce corruption.

Taliban refuses to hold formal talks with the ‘Western-backed’ Afghan government next month in Saudi Arabia.

KABUL - The Meshrano Jirga or upper house of the parliament on Sunday demanded the creation of a special unite of security person-nel for the protection of forests.Senate Secretary Tayyib Atta told the house deforestation in eastern Kunar province continued una-bated and the local government had failed to stop it.He claimed jangles in Kunar were cut and smuggled illegally which should be stopped.He termed forests the ownership of the land and added during the leadership of Former President Mohammad Daud Khan, there was a special security forces unite called Green Unit which had the responsibility for the security of forests and greenery.Atta said security forces currently stationed in Kunar focused on in-surgency and there was need for a separate force to deal with defor-estation.Mafia groups, militants and some stakeholders within the govern-ment were involved in the cutting and smuggling of Kunar forests.Senate Chairman Fazal Hadi Mus-limyar while referring to the crea-tion of a separate unit directed the Senate ...(More on P4)...(3)

KABUL - The Special Forces of the Afghan National Police have confiscated 455 kilograms of Hashish during an operation in Kabul, the Ministry of Interior (MoI) said Sunday.According to a statement released by the Ministry of Interior, the Special Forces Unit of the Afghan National Police confiscated 455 kilograms of Hashish during an operation conducted in Despe-chary area of the city.The statement further added that the drugs were professionally placed under the sacks of onion and were loaded in a truck.At least two suspects have also been arrested in connection to the smuggling of the drugs, MoI added in its statement.This comes as efforts are under-way to root out the cultivation of opium, production and smug-gling of ...(More on P4)...(6)

Senate Suggests Creation of Separate Force to Protect Forests

455 Kilograms of Hashish Seized by Special Forces in Kabul

Access to Information to Help Curb Corruption

KABUL - The Taliban has rejected Kabul’s offer of talks next month in Saudi Arabia where the armed group, fighting to restore strict Islamic

Taliban Dismisses Afghanistan’s Peace Talk Offer

3 Days to Deadline, No One Registers as Presidential Candidate

law in Afghani-stan, will meet the United States officials to fur-ther peace efforts, a Taliban leader said.Representatives from the Taliban, the US, Saudi Ara-bia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Pakistan met this month in the UAE for talks to end the 17-year

war in Afghanistan.But the Taliban has refused to hold for-mal talks with the Western-backed Af-

ghan government.“We will meet the US officials in Saudi Arabia in January next year and we will start our talks that remained incomplete in Abu Dhabi,” a member of the Tali-ban’s decision-making Leader-ship Council told Reuters news agency on Sunday.“However, we have made it clear to all the stakeholders that we will not talk to the Afghan gov-ernment.”Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also said the leaders of the group would not talk to the Afghan government.In a statement released on Satur-day, ...(More on P4)...(4)

KABUL - Just three days are remaining in the deadline to register as a presidential candidate, but so far no one has registered his/her can-didacy, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) said on Sunday.According to the presidential election sched-ule, the candidate registration process began on December 22 and would continue until January 2, 2019.Kobra Razai, deputy spokesman of the IEC, says so far 75 people, including a woman, have received the presidential election information packages but none has registered candidacy.Obtaining information packages is also pos-sible through the internet and some aspirant candidates have received these packages on-line, she added“Economic problems and natural calamities in the north and central parts of the country may be reasons that prevent the candidates from re-

turning the information bundles they obtained from the IEC,” she said, when asked why presidential candidates could not return after obtaining the infor-mation bundles.

KABUL - The Pentagon report has hinted at a fa-vourable political settlement in Afghanistan de-spite challenges on multiple fronts, according to a media report on Sunday.The US Defence Department report released this week cited the effects of a recent military escala-tion coupled with diplomatic initiatives.“The current military situation inside of Afghani-stan remains at an impasse. The introduction of additional advisers and enablers in 2018 stabi-lized the situation, slowing the momentum of a Taliban march that had capitalized on U.S. draw-downs between 2011 and 2016,” the report said.“Diplomatic, religious, military and social pres-sures, enabled by the conditions-based strategy, and buoyed by increased international engage-ment, have forced the Taliban senior leadership to debate whether to enter negotiations with the Afghan government,” the report added.In August 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump an-nounced his administration’s strategy on Afghan-istan and put forth a case for staying the course and not allowing ...(More on P4)...(2)

KABUL - Acting Interior Minister Amrullah Saleh has stopped officials and personnel of his ministry from discussion, analysis regarding peace talks with the militants, an official said on Sunday.Deputy spokesman Nasrat Rahimi wrote on his Facebook page regarding the new order conveyed to the officials of the interior ministry.“As part of the President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani’s clear and transparent policy of reconcili-ation and its possible outcomes which may result in the stability of government system in the coun-try, the senior officials of the ministry of interior have been issued the new orders,” he said.Saleh said discussion on peace process was the au-thority of the government leadership not armed forces which would have no impact on the policy and goals of the interior ministry.Saleh also ordered halt to the use of interior min-istry’s resources for personal purposes in the form creating cases ...(More on P4)...(5)

Pentagon Report Hints at Political Settlement

to Afghan Conflict

No Discussion on Peace Process Govt’s Leadership

Authority: SalehKABUL - Five new members of the OCAI, including Ainuddin Baha-duri, Zahra Musavi and Hamdullah Arbab, were introduced to the com-mission for a period of five years and Najiba Muram and Fazal Bari Baryali

for a period of three years in line with a presidential decree.Sarwar Danish, who introduced the new OCAI members, said the new commissioners had a tough job ahead.

He said key element of the freedom of expression was access to informa-tion could improve transparency and prevent corruption in government and nongovernmental organizations. ...(More on P4)...(1)

Noorul Haq Ulumi, Anwarul Haq Ahadi, Hakim Torsan, Hedayatullah Hafiz, Hayamud-din Watandost, Noor Rahman Liwal, Zalmai Rassoul, Rahmatullah Nabil, Shaida Moham-mad Abdali, Faramarz Tamana, Mohamad Hanif Atmar, Ahmad Wali Massoud, Hekmat Khalil Karzai and some others have received the information packages.According to the election law, a presidential election candidate should be Afghan, Muslim, have completed the age of 40, have the support of 100,000 people, not guilty of crimes against humanity, not deprived of civil rights and pay a million afghanis to the IEC.A credible source inside the IEC had earlier said that the presidential elections would be delayed from the previously announced date of April 20, 2019. The source had said that the gov-ernment and international community were di-vided over the date of elections. (Pajhwok)