Amirzai Sangeen, the Minister of Information Technology & Telecommunications, was summoned to the Senate on Sunday and asked to respond to queries regarding the security of government communications, technical problems in the telecommunication sector and broadband internet development.
At the meeting, Sangeen told the Senators that telephone calls of Afghan government officials and leaders of political parties could be intercepted outside and also inside the country.
"We need to install the latest technology to avoid intercepted phone calls of the President and other key officials, but the ministry of information technology and telecommunication doesn't have such equipment," he told the Senators on Sunday.
This year, controversy has erupted around the U.S.' National Security Agency (NSA), which was found to be listening in on a number of major world leaders' communications, including the personal phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
According to Sangeen, no one is allowed on the basis of the prevailing laws of the country to monitor the telephone conversations of another person.
He did acknowledge that the National Directorate of Security (NDS) and the Department of Counter-narcotics intercepts telephone calls of some individuals for legal purposes, while other organs could do the same illegally.
But the Minister said that those who use SIM boxes illegally in some cases have not been able to be punished in Afghanistan due to the incompleteness of laws on the heavily technical issue.
"We found those people who were using the illegal SIM boxed and introduced them to attorney general, in the presence of representatives of attorney general and police, but due some problems in the laws they weren't tried and were released on bail after a short while," Sangeen said.
The availability of unregistered mobile SIM cards was also something Senators expressed concerns about.
"Disturbing calls have increased by some individuals and unregistered SIM cards are the main reason," Senator Belqis Roshan said.
Sangeen said that mobile SIM cards are being registered, but the lack of accurate contact details of customers have caused challenges.
Afghanistan has seen a dramatic rise in the use of telecommunications and internet in recent years. The spread of mobile phones, especially, has expanded access to information but also brought with it a number of new demands on government and law enforcement.