KABUL - Both presidential candidates campaigning for the June runoff election, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, have expressed concerns about Parliament's delay in passing the crucial Anti-Money Laundering and Prevention of Financing Terrorism laws.
The intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has declared that Afghanistan will be placed on a blacklist that would severely reduce international investment in trade if it does not take steps to limit money laundering through legislative action immediately.
Both presidential candidates emphasized on Saturday that the two laws need to be ratified as soon as possible. Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani admonished President Hamid Karzai, agreeing that inheriting a government with a country blacklisted by the FATF would be an unnecessary burden.
Ghani's team went so far as to say that the anti-money laundering laws were as important as the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) with Washington, which both he and Abdullah have promised to sign within days of taking office.
"This law is as important for economic stability as the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) is for social stability," Ghani campaign member Hameedullah Farooqi said. "The delay in ratification of this law has created major economic challenges for Afghanistan, and Afghanistan could enter a new and deep economic crisis, this law needs to be ratified."
Qurban Ali Haqjo, a member of Abdullah's campaign team, accused the Afghan government of working carelessly and sluggishly.
"Our concerns are serious, and I think for whatever reason it was, the government has worked very slowly over the past two years, technical issues were not considered and instead political motives were," Haqjoo said. "This shows the carelessness of the government and of the president himself," he added.
Both teams said that if Afghanistan did find itself on the blacklist it would be a top priority of the next administration to do whatever would be needed to get off again.
"If God forbid, Afghanistan is added to the blacklist, one of the first things we will do in our first few days in office would be to ratify the laws and expand our relations with the International Banking Organizations to get Afghanistan off of the black list again," Haqjoo said.
"With the understanding that we have of global economics and finance, although it would take a while to get Afghanistan off of the blacklist, our team will be able to get the organizations to trust the the banking system of Afghanistan," Farooqi said.
The Anti-Money Laundering and Prevention of Financing Terrorism laws are common banking laws that help prevent the transfer of illegal money. The absence of these laws in Afghanistan could now prevent banks from working with major banks around the world.
Afghanistan has 20 days to ratify the law before being placed on the FATF's blacklist. Experts estimate it could take up to five years to be taken off the list. (Tolonews)