Nangarhar tribal leaders unhappy with MPs

JALALABAD (PAN): Tribal leaders from various districts of eastern Nangarhar provinces say their MPs have not kept their promises.

Malik Morid, a tribal leader in Pichiragam district, told Pajhwok Afghan News that some Nangarhar MPs have done nothing for residents since joining the Wolesi Jirga, or lower house of Parliament.

He said most of those MPs had spent large amounts of money on campaigning and had gotten their seats through fraud. He said it would take five years to recover all the money the MPs had spent.

Abdul Hanan, a member of the development council in Goshta district, agreed that the MPs had not kept their promises. He said that the MPs had slaughtered cows for people to eat during the elections, but that his district still did not have clean drinking water.

Allavodin, a tribal leader in Shirzad, said the public was so unhappy about election fraud that they would not participate in the next elections.

He said, “How can the MP do his work when he doesn’t know whether he is in Parliament based on bribes or votes?”

He added that he himself would never again vote in a Parliamentary election.

Jan Shinwari, a tribal leader in Achin, said that the MPs were too mired in controversy to attend to the needs of their constituents.

Pir Bakhsh Gardival, a Nangarhar MP in the Wolesi Jirga, denied allegations that the MPs did not perform their duties.

He said, “We do not have the power ourselves to build a street or perform other work for the people.” He said that when people bring their problems to the MPs, the MPs share them with the relevant authorities to try to find solutions.

Gardival said, “The special court prevented us from working for the public for six months.”

He said the MPs would begin to work for the people when the executive and legislature resolved their dispute.

Nangarhar has 14 seats in the Parliament, four of them occupied by women.

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