Afghanistan Times
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AT Monitoring Desk-KABUL: Regretting over absence of lawmakers in parliament sessions, the Wolesi Jirga or the National Assembly’s speaker said Wednesday that the house will face more hurdles in making decisions on important issues if the situation prevailed.
Speaker Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi said the Wolesi Jirga will not be able to take decision on daily agendas of the house.
It comes as 67 out of 246 lawmakers were present on Wednesday session.
“It is not tolerable anymore. We summon security agencies’ officials but at the end of the session there no more than 30 MPs present in the session,” the speaker said. “Can we display a good image of the house by this? Can we make decision through this way? Clearly, the answer is no. We are going forward against the law and the authorities that have been given to us. There are lots of gaps in the parliament,” Ibrahimi added.
Some lawmakers criticized the administrative board for shortcomings in management.
Ramazan Bashardost, an MP, said that the administrative board has failed to implement the internal duties principles. “You have not interfered in this issue impartially and based on national interests,” Bashardost told the speaker. “Those who are present in daily session and those who are not absent for days or attend the house for two hours on daily basis receive the same privileges,” he said.
He suggested that salaries of absent MPs should be cut according to article 125 of the internal duties principles.
Analysts believe that long-term absence of lawmakers is the outcome of their lack of motivation, lack of interest to their responsibilities, weakness in management of the Wolesi Jirga administrative board and their involvement in private business.
However lawmakers have several times said that one of the main reasons of their absence in daily sessions is that they were involved in addressing problems of their clients.
