MPs split over calling defiant AG to Wolesi Jirga

KABUL or lower house of the Parliament on Thursday divided over the issue of summoning the country’s leading prosecutor, who has been refusing to appear before the house.

Some MPs were of the view that the Parliament had no authority to summon the attorney general, Mohammad Ishaq Aloko, calling the lawmakers’ decision as “emotional”.

The lower house last week asked Aloko to attend its Monday’s session, but he did not appear and sent a letter, saying the Wolesi Jirga had no authority to call him for an investigation.

The house then again summoned him to its upcoming Saturday’s session, but his deputy, Rahmatullah Nazari, said the attorney general could not be summoned by MPs under the Constitution.

Wolesi Jirga deputy speaker, Khalid Pakhtun, on Thursday told the house that summoning the prosecutor was “an emotional decision and against of the Jirga‘s rules.”

“Only those officials who have secured a confidence vote from the current house can be summoned and Aloko has been given the trust vote by the previous Parliament,” Pakhtun argued.

He said the house should have decided whether or not to repeat the process after Karzai’s reelection in the 2009 presidential vote.

“Aloko is now an acting prosecutor and an acting prosecutor can’t be summoned,” he said. However, he criticised Aloko for refusing to appear before the house.

Gul Badshah Majeedi, an MP from Paktia, also came up with the same view, but called on the house to ask the President to suspend the attorney general. “The Wolesi Jirga lacks a credible rationale to summon the attorney general,” he said.

But Asadullah Saadati, an MP from Daikundi, said summoning the attorney general was constitutional right of the MPs.

Another MP, Aryan Yun, said the issue was echoed by some parliamentarians who were declared winners in the Sept. 18 election from provinces where the vote had been massively rigged.

A law professor, Shehla Farid, said the Parliament had no authority to summon the AG under the law.

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