Abdul Hadi Arghandiwal | |
---|---|
Finance Minister | |
In office March 2020 –January 2021 | |
President | Ashraf Ghani |
Preceded by | Mohammad Qayoumi |
Succeeded by | Khalid Painda |
Chairman of Hezb-i Islami Afghanistan | |
Assumed office 2008 | |
Finance Minister | |
In office 3 July 1996 –27 September 1996 | |
President | Burhanuddin Rabbani |
Preceded by | Karim Khalili |
Economy Minister | |
In office 16 January 2010 –9 December 2014 | |
President | Hamid Karzai |
Preceded by | Anwar ul-Haq Ahady |
Personal details | |
Born | 1952 (age 71–72) Kabul,Afghanistan [1] |
Political party | Hezb-i Islami Afghanistan |
Abdul Hadi Arghandiwal (born 1952) is an Afghan politician and the Head of Hezb-i Islami Afghanistan. [2] He was once allied with Islamist warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar,but in 2008 he was elected chairman of a moderate breakaway faction of Hekmatyar's party. [3]
Abdul Hadi Arghandiwal earned a BA in economics,before working at the planning ministry in 1977 and then he went to USA. Back in Afghanistan,he fled from the civil war to Pakistan. [4]
He has served as Minister of Finance in 1996. Arghandiwaal has also served as advisor to President Hamid Karzai over tribal affairs. On January 16,2010,he was appointed as Minister of Economy by gaining a vote of confidence from the Afghan Parliament. [5] [6] He was again Minister of Finance from March 2020 to January 2021. [7] [8]
In 2023,The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) has nominated former Afghan Finance Minister Abdul Hadi Arghandiwal for sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. Arghandiwal is accused of corruption and human rights abuses during his time in office.
Arghandiwal was appointed finance minister in 2019 by then-President Ashraf Ghani. He was responsible for overseeing the Afghan government's finances and implementing its economic policies. However,he was also accused of corruption and mismanagement.
In 2021,SIGAR released a report that found that Arghandiwal had used his position to enrich himself and his family. The report also found that he had used his position to benefit his political allies and to silence his critics.
In addition to corruption,Arghandiwal is also accused of human rights abuses. In 2020,SIGAR released a report that found that Arghandiwal's security forces had used excessive force against protesters and had detained and tortured civilians.
The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act is a law that allows the U.S. government to impose sanctions on individuals who are accused of human rights abuses and corruption. If the U.S. government imposes sanctions on Arghandiwal,it would freeze his assets in the United States and prohibit him from traveling to the United States.
The nomination of Arghandiwal for sanctions is a significant development. It is the first time that SIGAR has nominated an Afghan official for sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. The nomination is a sign that SIGAR is serious about holding Afghan officials accountable for corruption and human rights abuses. [9]
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is an Afghan politician,and former mujahideen leader and drug trafficker. He is the founder and current leader of the Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin political party,so called after Mohammad Yunus Khalis split from Hezbi Islami in 1979 to found Hezb-i Islami Khalis. He twice served as prime minister during the 1990s.
The following lists events that happened during 1996 in Afghanistan.
The Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan (TISA),also known as the Afghan Transitional Authority,was the name of the temporary transitional government in Afghanistan put in place by the loya jirga in June 2002. The Transitional Authority succeeded the original Islamic State of Afghanistan,and preceded the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2004–2021).
Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil Abdul Ghaffar is an Afghan politician who has been a member of the militant Taliban organization. He was the Taliban foreign minister from 27 October 1999 in their first Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan rule,until the Taliban were deposed in late 2001. Prior to this,he served as spokesman and secretary to Mullah Mohammed Omar,leader of the Taliban. After the Northern Alliance,accompanied by U.S. and British forces,ousted the regime,Muttawakil surrendered in Kandahar to government troops.
The Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin,also referred to as Hezb-e-Islami or Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA),is an Afghan political party and paramilitary organization,originally founded in 1976 as Hezb-e-Islami and led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. In 1979,Mulavi Younas Khalis split with Hekmatyar and established his own group,which became known as Hezb-i Islami Khalis;the remaining part of Hezb-e Islami,still headed by Hekmatyar,became known as Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin. Hezbi Islami seeks to emulate the Muslim Brotherhood and to replace the various tribal factions of Afghanistan with one unified Islamic state. This puts them at odds with the more tribe-oriented Taliban.
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Asadullah Khalid is a politician in Afghanistan. He served as head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS),which is the domestic intelligence agency of Afghanistan. Before his appointment as the head of the NDS in September 2012,Khalid served as the Minister of Tribal and Border Affairs. Between 2005 and 2008,he was the Governor of Kandahar Province and prior to that as Governor of Ghazni Province (2002-2005). From 2018 until 2021 he was the Minister of Defense. Khalid is said to be affiliated with the Islamic Dawah Organisation of Afghanistan and has been noted as one of many loyalists of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
The Afshar Operation was a military operation in Afghanistan that took place on February 11–12,1993 during the Afghan Civil War (1992-96). The operation was launched by Ahmad Shah Massoud and Burhanuddin Rabbani's Islamic State of Afghanistan government and the allied Abdul Rasul Sayyaf's Ittehad-i Islami paramilitary forces against Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezbe Islami and Abdul Ali Mazari's Hezbe Wahdat militias in the densely populated,Qizilbash-majority,Afshar district in west Kabul. The Hazara-Hezbe Wahdat together with the Pashtun-Hezbe Islami of Hekmatyar had been shelling densely populated areas in northern Kabul from their positions in Afshar,killing thousands. To counter the shelling,government forces attacked Afshar in order to capture the positions of Wahdat and its leader Mazari,and to consolidate parts of the city controlled by the government.
Abdul Jabar Sabet was an Afghan politician. In May 2006 Hamid Karzai appointed him Attorney General of Afghanistan.
The Ministry of Finance of Afghanistan is responsible for the implementation and execution of the budget,collection of taxes,organization,and control of public expenses in Afghanistan;it also controls the management of the Custom Affairs. The Ministry of Finance provides a quarterly report to inform the public and the executive cabinet of advancements in Afghanistan's financial sector. The current Finance Minister is Nasir Akhund.
The Karzai administration was the government of Afghanistan under President Hamid Karzai,who became the head of state of Afghanistan in December 2001 after the Taliban government was overthrown. Karzai was appointed at the 2002 Loya Jirga as the Interim President of the Afghan Transitional Administration. After the 2004 Afghan presidential election,he became the President of Afghanistan.
The First Karzai cabinet lead the administration of Afghanistan between 2004,the year Hamid Karzai won the first Afghan presidential election and 2009 when the second presidential election took place. In 2006 there was a major cabinet reshuffle. The first Karzai cabinet followed the Afghan Transitional Administration which was put in place by the 2002 loya jirga. Karzai announced the names of the cabinet on 23 December 2004. The cabinet was sworn in on 24 December 2002 and held its first cabinet meeting on 27 December. This cabinet consisted of 27 ministers,including two women.
The second Karzai cabinet was the cabinet of Afghanistan that led the government from the re-election of president Hamid Karzai in 2009 until the end of his term in 2014. The cabinet consisted of the president,his two vice-presidents,18 ministers who received approval from the Afghan Parliament,and 7 acting ministers who have not been approved.
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The Magnitsky Act,formally known as the Russia and Moldova Jackson–Vanik Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012,is a bipartisan bill passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in December 2012,intending to punish Russian officials responsible for the death of Russian tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison in 2009 and also to grant permanent normal trade relations status to Russia.
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Magnitsky legislation refers to laws providing for governmental sanctions against foreign individuals who have committed human rights abuses or been involved in significant corruption. They originated with the United States which passed the first Magnitsky legislation in 2012,following the torture and death of Sergei Magnitsky in Russia in 2009. Since then,a number of countries have passed similar legislation such as Canada,the United Kingdom and the European Union.
The EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Mechanism is a mechanism of the Council of the European Union to punish personnel from non-EU countries responsible for gross violations of human rights. Inspired by the Global Magnitsky Act in the US,the mechanism permits the EU to maintain a list of human rights violators around the globe,imposing on them various sanctions,such as visa bans or asset freezes,on behalf of the entire bloc.
The Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom applying to the United Kingdom.