KABUL’s peace and stability.
Dostum has accused heads of the unity government of ethnic favoritism, warning they were pushing the country towards destruction.
Talking to reporters in Shiberghan, the capital of northern Jawzjan province, Dostum expressed concern over the current situation and asked President Ashraf Ghani and CEO Abdullah to concentrate on dealing with national issues.
He claimed nepotism was the order of the day in the nation’s capital. The CEO always appointed people of his community to high positions in utter disregard of merit, while President Ghani preferred hiring ethnic Pakhtuns, he maintained.
His diatribe was openly discussed at Tuesday’s Meshrano Jirga session as most of the senators termed it bad for Afghanistan’s stability.
Gen. Dostum said the president — surrounded by Hanif Atmar, Masoom Stanekzai and Salam Rahimi — accepted everything they said. “The president will accept milk is black if they say so.”
Senator Jummadin Giyanawal said differences among the government leaders could fuel insecurity and provide a chance to the enemy to destroy Afghanistan’s government system.
Another upper house member Lotfullah Baba: “We call on the government not destroy our nation. Afghanistan’s nation is united and we shouldn’t divide them in the name of ethnicity, political parties or groups.”
Senator Rahmatullah Achakzai from Kandahar stressed figuring out reasons behind the tension between government leaders and said their differences should be resolved at the earliest possible.
“These leaders are not concerned about the nation because their own families are living outside of Afghanistan. If the system is overthrown, they will flee the country and the nation will bear the brunt.”
Senator Safiullah Hashimi backed Gen. Dostum’s statement and said the political wrangling was neither in the interest of government nor the nation and should be brought to an end as soon as possible. He said such differences weakened people’s morale.
Senator Abdul Latif Nohzatyar from Nuristan province said both houses of the parliament should create a joint committee for resolving differences between the government leaders.
Nadar Baloch from Nimroz province said: “The differences have paved the way for injustices and have enhanced insecurity and weakened the morale of soldiers and people.”
“It’s a shame for government leaders to invest on only one specific ethnic group and push to the wall minorities.”
A number of other senators held similar views and asked for an immediate end to the differences between government leaders.
Senate’s 1st vice chairman Farhad Sakhi, who chaired the session, said: “The rift should be brought to an end because it is not in the interest of the nation and the system. The government leaders shouldn’t be ethnocentric.”
He said the people could no longer tolerate the ongoing situation, which if continued, the National Assembly and the people would react and would take a decision on their own.
The current system has no alternative and the government leaders shouldn’t be a cause of overthrowing the system, Farhad concluded.
sns/ma
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