Monitoring Desk
MAZAR-I-SHARIF: The provincial government in northern Balkh province is yet to introduce the new director of the Hairatan Port and Commerce Township Services to his office since the issuance of a presidential decree in this regard 20 days ago.
The new director, Abdul Latif Sahak, told Pajhwok Afghan News that some mafia groups were behind the delay in his introduction, but named no one.
Earlier, former Balkh Governor Atta Mohammad Noor, the leader of Jamiat-i-Islami party, had alleged President Ashraf Ghani recently made appointments to strengthen his campaign and warned he would prevent such moves.
The governor’s house in Mazar-i-Sharif, the provincial capital, said they had not formally received the presidential order regarding the appointment of Abdul Latif Sahak as head of the Hairatan Port and Commerce Township Services, but reiterated commitment to following orders from the Presidential Palace.
Sahaak told Pajhwok Afghan News some mafia groups thwarted his appointment, which he said was made to through an open competition and with recommendation of the Ministry of Finance and approval from the Presidential Palace.
“The governor’s house delegation is silent and just maintains there are some issues in Hairatan Port and I will be formally introduced once these issues are resolved,” he said of the provincial government’s version.
Sahak said after waiting for two days in Balkh he returned to Kabul and was now awaiting the president’s and the Finance Ministry’s decision on his fate.
He said currently the Hairatan Port authority was delinked from the central government as revenues were collected and spent without informing the government in Kabul. He said some specific circles were involved in corruption and financial embezzlement at the Hairatan port, but he did not name anyone.
Sahak said his plan was to centralize Hairatan’s revenue but it worried some individuals who feared losing their benefits.
A close ally of former jihadi leader in Balkh, Jumma Khan Hamdard, Sahak has been among critics of former Balkh governor Atta Mohammad Noor and Balkh local administration.
Noor, the executive chief of the Jamiat-i-Islami party, had said the president was trying to appoint his own figures to important revenue offices in order to keep his campaign strong.
Two days earlier, Noor said the president wanted to remove officials who did not support him from their government positions.
“If the president sees an official is supporting another presidential candidate team, he would immediately remove him,” he had said.
Ghani employs his thieves and disqualified individuals to government jobs and fires officials and officers even with master’s degrees only because they do not support him, he had said.
“The president wants to remove a honest person, who has master’s degree, from Hairatan port and replace him with a thieve and a smuggler who was smuggling to Taliban until recently,” he alleged.
Noor said such moves from the president were unacceptable in the north and the whole of the country.
Balkh governor’s house says they have not received any official letter regarding the appointment of the new head for commerce services in Hairatan port.
Munir Farhad, the governor’s spokesman, said they had only heard about the issue in social media only.
He confirmed having seen the letter on social media but said they had not officially received it from the central office.
Farhad said no delegation from Kabul to address the issue had been sent so far to Balkh. “If we formally receive the letter about the president’s order, we will implement it,” he said. He said there were no problems in implementing any legal process in Balkh.
Ebadullah Darman, spokesman for the Ministry of Finance, also confirmed that Latif Sahak had been appointed as services in-charge in Hairatan port, but added that there were some problems in the matter.
He was unaware about a central government delegation’s visit to Balkh, but said Latif Sahak would be introduced to his position in near future.
“You know the government authority is divided by 50-50, when one side accepts something, the other side sometimes shows displeasure, but I am sure the issue would be solved soon,” he concluded. (Pajhwok)
