While President Ashraf Ghani and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah attempt to end the political impasse that has hobbled the Afghan government and given rise to domestic and international critiscism, some lawmakers in the parliament have accused President Ghani of attempting to monopolize political power by curbing the authorities of the cabinet ministers and shifting it to advisers.
 
The president’s move to transfer power from cabinet ministers and transfer their authority to his advisers is an attempt to create parallel institutions within the ministries, said the lawmakers, in response to recent remarks by the minister of social affairs and labor.
 
The minister of social affairs and labor, Sayed Anwar Sadat, recently said that in the future every cooperation agreement between Afghanistan and foreign institutions will be finalized only after approval by the president’s legal adviser.
 
But the Presidential Palace has rejected the allegations, saying every institution and ministry operates within the framework of their legal authorities.
 
“According to the law, each institution has its own area of functioning and scope of work. The allegation that one institution is taking over another’s authorities--we do not accept this and it is not true,” said Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for President Ghani.
 
This comes a day after Minister Sadat, during the signing ceremony of $10 million of South Korean assistance to Afghanistan, said that based on the presidential decree, the ministries are not allowed to sign cooperation agreements with foreign institutions without coordinating the process with the Presidential Palace.
 
“We sent this agreement to the president’s legal advisory board and attained their suggestions,” said Minister Sadat during the ceremony.
 
Members of parliament have said that sending agreements to the president’s legal board is against the law while there are other legal institutions.
 
“The creation of a legal advisory board, or attempts to influence the ministries which are the legal institutions of the country, is against the law. As we witnessed before, Ghani’s decrees have always violated the constitution,” said Khan Aqa Rezayee, a member of parliament.
 
“In the past, also the Presidential Palace made attempts to monopolize the power, but it was in contrast to the law...If this happens again, we will not have a good period over the next five years,” said Ziauddin Saraj, a member of parliament.
 
Over the past few years, Ghani has been accused by Afghan politicians of attempting to centralize power within the Presidential Palace.