Kandahar residents say MPs inaccessible, preoccupied

KANDAHAR (PAN): Some Kandahar residents, say that their MPs have not followed through on their promises. They say they are barely represented in Parliament.

Kandahar resident Mirza Mohammad, for example, said that during the campaign MPs had chanted slogans about serving the people.

He added that many of them had included in their posters images of popular historical figures such as Ahmad Shah Baba, Mirwais Nika, and Gul Agha Shirzoy.

Kandahar is the most volatile province in the country, plagued by a lack of electricity, low levels of education, violence and unemployment. Many government ministries are short-staffed.

Residents accuse MPs of failing to heed their concerns.

Mohammad said that he received no answer when he tried to bring his problems to his MP. He said he had called the MP constantly for a week and gotten no response.

Poet and writer Mohammad Yar Yar, a resident of Shar Pour Darwaza, said many of the MPs had gotten their seats in Parliament through threats of force and were not concerned about public service.

He pointed to the Parliamentary crisis and said that MPs are working for themselves, rather than for the people.

Capitan Abdul Haq, a Kandahar MP, acknowledged that Parliament’s current crisis had prevented the MPs from doing much other work. But he said that the MPs had spoken to authorities within the relevant ministries about Kandahar’s problems, including lack of electricity and lack of security. He said that not all ministries took their work equally seriously.

He added that Kandahar MPs had twice visited the province together and had spoken with the governor, heads of directorates, members of the provincial council and elders. He said they had presented the province’s problems to Parliament.

He said they had also worked for education, getting 700 tents approved by relevant departments to serve as classrooms. They had also demanded higher salaries for teachers in remote areas, he said.

He also said the MPs had arranged housing for 250-300 of Kandahar’s students, and that the MPs had worked to release those wrongfully imprisoned in the province.

Kandahar has 11 seats in Parliament, 3 occupied by women and 8 by men.

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