Jawzjan residents dissatisfied with their MPs

SHABARGHAN (PAN): The residents of northern Jawzjan province are dissatisfied with their MPs’ performance over the past six months.

They say the MPs have neither contacted their constituents since the election nor honored the promises they made during their campaigns.

But a parliamentarian from Jawzjan province said that delivering public services was the duty of government and that lawmakers are considered a bridge between the government and the public.

Abdul Salam, 35, is a butcher at the Andkhoy Port and a resident of Shabarghan, the provincial capital. He is unhappy with his representatives.

He told Pajhwok Afghan News:“Our representatives in Parliament have done nothing yet.”

He claims that the MPs promised that they would pave the roads and reconstruct provincial schools and water systems.

“Thousands of people are jobless in our province and are nearly starving to death, but the MPs are not aware of it,” Abdul Salam added.

He asked that the MPs communicate with and help their constituents.

Zakira, 40, another resident of Shabarghan, said she had expected a lot from the MPs, but that the past six months demonstrated they were mostly thinking about their own relatives rather than the public.

“How can the MPs, who don’t have coordination among themselves, serve the people?” she asked.

She expressed regret for the vote she cast for one of the winning MPs, saying: “The MPs of Jawzjan have not kept their promises to the people.”   

Rohullah, a resident of the Qush Tepa district of Jawzjan province, who supports his family by driving a rickshaw, told Pajhwok that Parliamentary candidates shouted promises in every street and road during the election campaign, but not a single one has been fulfilled yet.

Abdul Manan Feroz, an employee of the Jawzjan Information and Culture Directorate, told Pajhwok that people in that province were suffering from drought, lack of potable water and the outbreak of seasonal diseases, but the MPs were unaware of the peoples’ problems.

Rejecting the claim, Baz Mohammad Jawzjani, a one of Jawzjan’s lawmakers in the Wolesi Jirga, or lower house of Parliament, told Pajhwok that he had visited Jawzjan four times and talked to a large number of people during the visits.

He listed his accomplishments during his first term in Parliament, including reconstruction).

Jawzjani said: “Delivering public services is the government’s duty. We have tried to do that.”

He admitted that he had yet to accomplish anything in his second term in Parliament.   

He promised that he would work with other Jawzjan MPs to seek solutions to drought and education problems including the lack of classes in universities.

Jawzjan has five seats in the Wolesi Jirga, one of them reserved for women.

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