Over 350 key figures return to Afghanistan in past year: IEA

The Contact Commission with the Afghan Personalities of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), said that at least 370 Afghan personalities have returned to Afghanistan in the past year.

The commission’s spokesman Ahmadullah Wasiq told Bakhtar news agency that since the establishment of the commission, 370 people including ministers, deputies, and members of parliament, national security employees, journalists and prominent political figures have returned to the country.

According to Wasiq, the commission was created based on an order by the supreme leader of the Islamic Emirate, and that as long as there are Afghans living outside the country, the commission will work to get them home.

“We have announced the contact numbers, anyone who wants to return to the country can make contact through this commission,” Wasiq said.

In response to a question about whether Ashraf Ghani would return, Ahmadullah Wasiq said: “I must say, Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has not contacted the commission yet.”

He added that the IEA asked former jihadi leader Amir Mohammad Ismail Khan to stay in the country, but he decided to migrate abroad.

Wasiq says that the Islamic Emirate has given jobs in government to a number of elite and professional people who returned to the country, adding that there is no problem for them to travel abroad.

Wasiq also denied claims that the Islamic Emirate prevented former CEO Abdullah Abdullah from traveling out of the country.

He said: “There are rumors that Abdullah Abdullah does not have the right to travel to any country; While Dr. Abdullah Abdullah traveled abroad several times and returned again.”

He said that journalists who left the country have also been invited to return and that some have come home.

Wasiq once again called on Afghans living outside the country, especially politicians, elite and academics, to stay in Afghanistan and work together with their countrymen to establish a prosperous homeland.