Afghanistan Times
Related Articles
President Ashraf Ghani endorsed the draft amendment in the article 6 of the population registration act that allows the words ‘Afghan’ and the ‘ethnicity’ in the new identification cards supposed to be distributed. The article had turned to a controversy over the distribution of the computerized identification cards which caused a long delay for its distribution.
The article is actually about the particulars of the individuals in their identification cards that had its supporters and opposition. Some people said only the word of ‘Afghan’ as the nationality of every person holding the citizenship of Afghanistan is fine and there is no need to add the names of tribes. These people with such idea were saying that mentioning the tribes and ethnicities would cause division among a united nation.
People on the other side rejected this, arguing that mentioning only the word of ‘Afghan’ would ignore other people, because they thought that Afghan is used for a particular ethnicity, while different ones live in the country named Afghanistan. These people were emphasizing on mentioning the names of ethnicities, and even were warning that they would ask their ethnic groups not to accept the new identification cards.
In fact, a person who holds the citizenship of the United States of America is called American, regardless his/her gender, origin and other specifications. A citizen of Iran with different ethnicity is called Iranian. Thus, the word ‘Afghan’ should not cause friction and sensitivity as it includes all the people of Afghanistan.
At a time that we face problems from abroad and our enemies beyond the borders trying to create rifts among us by any means, we need unity more than any other time, such ineffectual ideas help our enemies reach their goals and divide us in many but small and weak parts.
However, the president’s decision is wisely to prevent any possible problems in the future. Now, this is the time for issuing the computerized identification cards and put an end to people’s long wait. Millions of dollars were allocated for this program and it would have been spent uselessly if we could not have reached an agreement.
The people hope that electoral fraud would be prevented or at least decreased by the distribution of the computerized identification cards in the upcoming parliamentary election, let not some persons and groups to play with people’s destiny with the pretext of fraud as some did and took advantages in the 2014 presidential election.
