The Lower House of Parliament on Monday suspended the budget of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MoIC) after its acting minister, Ajmal Ahmadi, “ignored” his summon by the MPs.

According to the Afghan lawmakers, Ahmadi’s absence led the Lower House to approve his disqualification and suspend the Ministry’s budget.
“President Ghani has previously pledged that he would present to Parliament every six months; now we even cannot see a minister in a year,” the chairman of Lower House, Mir Rahman Rahmani said.

In the meantime, a Parliament Member, Mohammad Ali Akhlaqi stated that the MoIC acting minister had repeatedly disregarded the Lower House and the Parliament must conclude that Ahmadi would not be able to make any decision afterwards and his signature would not be valid in any office.
However, suspending the MoIC’s budget was criticized by a number of other lawmakers which led some of them to leave the session.