KABUL (SW) – Though, it is not yet clear who will attend the Istanbul conference, a number of Wolesi Jirga (lower house) members on Monday claimed more ethnic Pashtun leaders form the delegation than others.
At today’s plenary session, a number of MPs said that the list they received of the government’s negotiating team showed that no balance has been struck. According to the members, the dominant presence of one ethnic group and the non-participation of other ethnic groups in the composition of the delegation will prevent the meeting from achieving an acceptable result.
“The delegation that is going to attend the Istanbul meeting has no balance and the Wolesi Jirga has not been considered,” said Agha Rezaei. He said the Taliban on the other hand claim to be the representative of the Pashtun people, but cannot in fact represent the Pashtun people.
Hafizullah Jalili, another member of the house, said the delegation going to the Istanbul meeting includes 19 to 22 people. He claimed ethnic and parliamentary composition of the country has been ignored.
Meanwhile, a number of other members of rejected this notion and said that the Pashtuns have made the greatest sacrifices to preserve the democratic system and should be given a greater share.
“Has the Pashtuns or any other ethnic group sacrificed more for this system?” said Khalid Assad. “Let us see which ethnic group has more representation in the ranks of the security forces, the police, the security and the army”, he asked.
We wanted to have the views of the High Council for National Reconciliation on the composition of the negotiating team, but the council spokesman did not respond to greetings.
However, Mir Rahman Rahmani, speaker of the house, said that the published list of the delegation that is scheduled to attend the Istanbul meeting is incorrect and the High Council of National Reconciliation does not approve it. “Afghanistan is of not of any specific ethnic group; it is the common home of all Afghans. In this land, no one is superior to another. In this situation, we need national unity and mutual acceptance.”
ENDS
