In the face of a financial crisis, Taliban authorities in Afghanistan liquidated five major ministries of the former US-backed administration, including the country’s Human Rights Commission, an official said on Monday.
This fiscal year, Afghanistan will have a budget deficit of 44 billion Afghanis ($501 million), according to Taliban officials, who published their first annual national budget since taking control of the war-torn country last August.
“These departments have been disbanded because they were not judged necessary and were not included in the budget,” Innamullah Samangani, the Taliban government’s deputy spokesman, told the media.
The High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR), the once-powerful National Security Council, and the commission charged with supervising the implementation of the Afghan constitution were all abolished as well.
Former Afghan President Abdullah Abdullah was the final leader of the HCNR, which was tasked with negotiating a settlement between former President Ashraf Ghani’s US-backed government and the Taliban at the time.
Foreign forces withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021, 20 years after invading the country, causing the government to collapse and the Taliban to assume control.
The national budget, according to Samangani, is “based on objective facts” and is solely for departments that have been active and productive.
“If needed,” he said, the corpses may be revived in the future.
From 1996 to 2001, the Taliban controlled Afghanistan with an iron grip, imposing a draconian form of Islamic law that included prohibiting women from school and employment. The Taliban promised the world they would be more moderate after gaining power last year.
They have yet to let older girls to return to school, and they have implemented restrictions mandating women and girls to wear veils and to be accompanied by male relatives in public areas.
