KABUL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th September, 2019) Afghan presidential candidate Rahmatullah Nabil, an ex-spy chief who joined the presidential race as an independent candidate, in an interview with Sputnik has vowed to crack down on the Taliban if elected, in particular promising to drain the group of its resources, prevent it from continuing military actions in Afghanistan and force it to the negotiating table.
The Taliban remains the burning issue in Afghanistan as the group continues to mount deadly attacks across the country. Insurgents have strengthened their grip over the past months as the presidential election draws nearer.
"We will take the chance of [waging] war from them, thereby putting pressure on the Taliban and forcing them to talk," Nabil, who served from 2013-2015 and from 2010-2012 as chief of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the country's Primary intelligence agency, said.
He insisted that his presidential program is "civilian" in nature, meaning that the Taliban movement "cannot escape the program we have for peace."
As drug trafficking is considered to be one of the primary sources of Taliban financing, the ex-intelligence chief vowed to root it out. The organization reportedly runs a large-scale financial network and taxation system to sponsor its operations. The group's yearly budget supposedly stands at no less than $500 million.
"We will drain the Taliban's financial resources, such as the $9 billion a year [they receive] from drug trafficking, [drug trafficking] centers should be closed, whether indoors or outside," Nabil promised, branding the Taliban "an enemy of the Afghan people."
While reviewing the country's defense capabilities in tackling the increased attacks, Nabil appealed for united efforts to tackle the decades-long bloodshed. In particular, he said both military and intelligence services should be deployed to battle the insurgents.
"The war is in Afghanistan. Its defense should be unanimous. We have always focused on the military part and the intelligence sector has not been so focused on. Bringing security is not just about focusing on the military side," he said.
The NDS has repeatedly come under fire for failing to prevent the Taliban's attacks, and the Afghan security service has been criticized for turning a blind eye to the group's activities.
More recently, Afghanistan has been struggling to ensure security ahead of the presidential election, which is now scheduled for September 28 after having been postponed twice in the wake of several deadly terrorist attacks.
NDS' ROLE IN DISPUTED 2014 ELECTION
The 2014 presidential election in Afghanistan was also a rough process. Then-presidential contender Ashraf Ghani and his long-term rival, Abdullah Abdullah, both claimed victory in the tight race and each accused the other of election fraud.
Nabil, a vocal critic of Ghani who was the head of the NDS during the 2014 election, repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of his coming to power. The intelligence agency reportedly registered scores of signals that indicated Ghani's involvement in election fraud. Nabil resigned from his post a year after the election.
"As for preventing fraud in the 2014 election, our job was to collect intelligence information, and submit it to the Election Commission and the responsible agencies. We did our job but we were not allowed to interfere, our job was just to collect all information," he said when asked about the fraudulent activities detected during and after the disputed vote.
This July, Nabil lashed out at the incumbent president, saying that he used the national treasury to finance his presidential campaign.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR INVESTMENT BUT NO SECURITY
Speaking on his presidential campaign goals, Nabil touched upon the issue of investments, saying that investments in Afghanistan could be possible and that the only stumbling blocks were the lack of security and a system.
"There are opportunities for investment, but there is no system, no security, these are the main reasons that people do not want to invest," he explained.
According to the presidential candidate, the Afghan people can not learn how to attract foreign investment unless they "keep everything in [their] homes." He recalled that thousands of factories were closed in the Herat province and about $20 billion was drained out of Afghanistan in the last five years. Herat is often viewed as one of Afghanistan's economic hubs,
"Unless we are the owners of our homeland, and do not become the owner of our highways, we can not claim that the economy is built or made," he said.
The Afghan Foreign Ministry is actively promoting its project called "Invest In Afghanistan," through which it stresses the benefits of investing in a variety of areas, including agriculture, energy, infrastructure, telecommunications and banking.
