Taliban dissolves Human Rights Commission

AFGHANISTAN: Taliban authorities in Afghanistan dissolved five key departments of the former U.S.-backed government, including the country’s Human Rights Commission, deeming them unnecessary in the face of a financial crunch, an official said on Monday.

Afghanistan faces a budget deficit of 44 billion Afghanis (US$ 501 million) this financial year, Taliban authorities said on Saturday as they announced their first annual national budget since taking over the war-torn country last August.

“Because these departments were not deemed necessary and were not included in the budget, they have been dissolved,” Innamullah Samangani, the Taliban government’s deputy spokesman, told Reuters.

Also dissolved was the High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR), the once high-powered National Security Council, and the commission for overseeing the implementation of the Afghan constitution.

The HCNR was last headed by former Afghan President Abdullah Abdullah, and was working to negotiate a peace between the U.S.-backed Government of former President Ashraf Ghani and the then-insurgent Taliban.

Meanwhile, Thousands of money exchangers shut shop across Afghanistan on Sunday after Taliban authorities imposed a steep hike in licence fees, the brokers’ commission said, in a bid to slow down money laundering and terrorism financing according to financial analysts.

Afghanistan’s formal banking system collapsed when the Taliban swept back to power in August last year, ending two decades of US-led military intervention in the deeply impoverished nation.

Since then money exchangers — who swap currencies, make informal cash transfers and even give loans — have played a key role in meeting the financial needs of 38 million citizens mired in humanitarian crisis.

He said the central bank had raised licence fees to five million Afghanis (US$ 56,000) from around 300,000.

– THE BANGKOK POST