Avoid fueling ethnic strife, MPs tell Ghani

KABUL on Saturday accused President Ashraf Ghani of fueling ethnic differences while others supported the president’s infrastructure development programs.

Some lawmakers at today’s session of the house also criticized US ambassador’s statement regarding investigation into allegations of rape and torture against vice-president Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum.

The MPs also called for summoning Independent Election Commission (IEC) officials to brief the house on the commission’s preparations for the upcoming Wolesi Jirga and district council elections.

Pro and anti-president remarks

First deputy speaker of the lower house, Hamayon Hamayon, called the ongoing security, economic and political situation as critical and accused the president of demagoguery.

He said a number of projects the president was talking about had no practical side. “As a public representative, I ask the president to put aside his public deception and avoid fueling tribal divisions and plunging the country into a crisis for securing his own circle’s interests.”

He said people were tired of insecurity and other problems in provinces and oust him from the government if he continued keeping his own interests supreme over the nation’s.

Hamidzai Lalai, who represents Kandahar province, said some figures inside and outside of the country were trying to create rifts between the government, the parliament and the people.

Without naming anyone, he said some specific figures were trying to overthrow the current government. Government officials should also stop fueling differences as such acts would produce damaging consequences for the country, he added.

However, lawmaker Mullah Tarakhel said that president’s programs should be supported.

“Some circles inside and outside of the government are serving the interests of neighboring Iran and creating problems for Afghanistan, we should implement projects such as dams, transit and others by supporting this system, because we have no other alternative,” he said.

Another lawmaker, Mohammad Iqbal Safi, said some regional countries were against major water controlling projects in the country. He said some MPs knowingly and unknowingly were working for benefits of enemies.

The lawmaker also talked about elections while some of his colleagues came hard on the US ambassador remarks regarding Dostum and Eshchi case.

Elections

A number of lawmakers called for summoning Independent Election Commission (IEC) officials to brief the house on how the next year’s elections would be held.

Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi, Wolesi Jirga speaker, said the government had violated the law by delaying the Wolesi Jirga and district council polls.

The Wolesi Jirga was going to summon IEC officials in few days to clarify how security would be ensured and what about financial matters and non-interference of government authorities in the process.

It has been scheduled the Wolesi Jirga and district councils’ poll will be held on July 7, 2018.

Condemnation of US Ambassador’s remarks regarding 1st VP case

Hugo Llorens, the US Ambassador to Kabul, on July 11 asked the Afghan government to investigate charges against 1st VP Gen. Dostum carefully and in a transparent manner. He said the government should not come under pressure in investigating the case in order to show the world the country was committed to the rule of law.

Nasrullah Sadiqi Zadanili, a public representative from Daikundi province, said: “The remarks by the US Ambassador were aimed at damaging the reputation of some figures, this is a legal case and it has nothing to do with the ambassador.”

He also accused the Afghanistan government of politically playing with the case, saying this move would have negative results.

Fatima Aziz, a lawmaker from Kunduz province, said the US ambassador’s remarks had brought under question the soverignity of Afghanistan and the ‘conspiracy’ needed to be tackled.

She asked the president to not let foreign ambassadors meddle in Afghanistan’s internal and legal cases because it would result in people’s irritation.

Allah Gul Mujahid, a legislator from Kabul, said: “No one particularly foreigners have the right to intervene in the 1st VP’s case or demand its trial outside the country.”

He also foreigners’ intervention was behind all miseries and they should not be stopped from inteferring in the country’s internal affairs. Until foreigners existed in Afghanistan, such issues would never end in the country, he believed.

A number of other members of the house also wanted foreign intervention in internal affairs of Afghanistan to be prevented, especially in the Gen. Dostum-Eshchi case.

Speaker Ibrahimi said judicial organs were independent in their proceedings and should be impartial in their acts.

He said judicial organs should not come under pressure from foreign concerns because giving attention to foreign voices would cast doubt on the judiciary’s impartiality.

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