Afghanistan’s First Lady Rula Ghani on Wednesday rejected any political motives behind money distribution to women in eastern Nangarhar province and said the money that was distributed by her office was only aimed at helping poor women.
Footages published on social media show that a group of anti-government armed men set on fire the money which has been assisted to women in Nangarhar province by the office of Rula Ghani.
Rula Ghani has been accused of election campaign by distributing the money to the women, but she sharply rejected the claims and said there was no political motives behind the move insisting that she is not interested in political issues.
“Why do you burn the money from treasury? Don’t you have shame? You do not know mercy, Allah count mercy important,” Rula Ghani said.
Some members of Nangarhar provincial council, however, criticized Rula Ghani over spending the money for electoral campaigns. They said for supporting poor people, there are channels that can do it instead of distribution through Rula Ghani’s office.
“If they give gift or provide aid to the people, there are departments that the money can be distributed through them. If they spend the people’s money in electoral campaigns, then it is a big deal,” Nasir Kamawal, member of Nangarhar provincial council said.
“If the money should be distributed, there are ways to do so. I think this is big a big deal to the people of Afghanistan,” Suhrab Qaderi, another member of the council said.
Rula Ghani said following the financial clearance of last fiscal year, she encouraged the ministries of Finance and Public Health to distribute an amount of money from the government budget to women in need in Nangarhar.
“It was decided that the finance ministry along with the public health ministry start a program and give each poor woman AFs500, so that the money can facilitate their visit to health centers,” she added.
Meanwhile, head of public health department of Nangarhar province Nasir Ahmad Durrani said they distributed AFs91 million to poor women in the province in collaboration with the ministries of Finance and Public Health.
“In total, it is over one billion Afghanis and AFs91 million has been allocated for Nangarhar,” said Durrani.
An official of the Ministry of Finance in a telephonic call to TOLOnews said the total amount distributed to women was one billion Afghanis and the ministry had a facilitative role in the process.
The Directorate of Public Health in Nangarhar says that distribution of the money was a decision made at the Council of Ministers, but Chief Executive’s spokesman Mujib Rahman Rahimi said they do not have any information about the issue.
Council of Ministers is chaired by Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah.
