KABUL (SW): The Wolesi Jirga (lower house) on Monday rejected the Presidential Decree no. 243 on amendments in the Population Census Law with a majority vote.
The Decree calls for incorporating the ethnicity of the card holder on the face of the proposed biometric identity cards. A number of WJ members supported the decree, but others opposed it. When the house voted on the fate of it, Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi, speaker of the house, announced that it has been rejected with 83 votes.
Another Presidential Decree no. 247 also related to the Population Census Law was approved with some amendments. This Decree states that the central and provincial heads of the Directorate of Population Census should have the right to approve changes in name and age of identity card holders, and the directorate shall be an independent one.
Legally, the Decrees are now supposed to be tabled at the Masharano Jirga (upper house) and finally back to the President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani.
ENDS
