Kabul: Afghanistan's local government
directorate on Wednesday announced areas expected to transfer from
NATO to Afghan control as part of a second phase of transition
due to end across the country in 2014.
Badakhshan, Badghis, Balkh, Daykundi, Ghazni, Ghor,
Helmand, Herat, Kabul, Laghman, Nangarhar, Nimroz, Parwan,
Samangan, Sar-i-pul, Takhar and Wardak provinces are likely to
be announced by President Hamid Karzai at next month's
regional conference in Istanbul, said the body's director
Abdul Khaliq Farahi.
Most of Herat and Kabul were already handed over to
Afghan control in a first wave of transition in July, but some
districts remain under NATO's remit.
Karzai "will announce the names of the provinces at
Istanbul conference on November 2," Farahi, director of the
Independent Directorate for Local Government, told a press
conference in Kabul.
"In the second phase of transition there are 17
provinces, but some of them (will transfer authority for) the
entire province, others include districts," Farahi said.
He said a meeting would take place today to listen to the
views and concerns of local leaders from the likely areas for
transition, and could lead to the removal of some troubled
districts from the list.
But the names of the provinces are unlikely to be
changed, he said.
NATO combat troops are scheduled to withdraw from
Afghanistan by the end of 2014, by which time Afghan forces
should be responsible for national security.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, October 26, 2011, 13:49