Afghan cabinet approves right to information act

Monitoring Desk

KABUL: The Afghan cabinet approved the Right to Information act in an emergency meeting with President Muhammad Ashraf Ghani in the chair here.

Minister for justice tabled the bill in the cabinet meeting, saying the act having five chapters and 41 articles has been approved by the law committee. The purpose of the bill is to ensure true access of people to information in departments, transparency, boost the culture of information conveying, increase participation of people in governance, ensure accountability for counter-corruption efforts, implement the 19th article of the statement issued by international human rights and preparation of framework for presentation of information, he added.

The cabinet approved the bill after detailed discussions on the matter, he said.

Similarly, the second vice president was given the responsibility to form a commission in the center with the cooperation of justice ministry for three years, and after making necessary corrections, finalize the articles presented in the meeting about the budget, information and classification with the consent of finance ministry during implementation in the provinces.

The cabinet approved the law proposal about the companies of limited responsibilities. The meeting was briefed about the proposal of organizing foreign companies.

The justice minister presented the amendment bill to some articles of higher education in the meeting. The law committee had already termed the amendment as implementable.

Similarly, the cabinet approved the amendment and abolition of some orders and articles in some other laws. The proposal to change the name of ministry of trade and industries was also discussed.

The president lauded the second vice present and justice ministry for completing 300 legal documents, which had been completed in various phases over the past three years, and which fall into the ambit of pledges of Afghan government with the international community.