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AG says will appear before Wolesi Jirga at appropriate time

AG says will appear before Wolesi Jirga at appropriate time

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9 Apr 2011 - 18:46
AG says will appear before Wolesi Jirga at appropriate time
author avatar
9 Apr 2011 - 18:46

KABUL, lower house of the Parliament, at an appropriate time, the prosecutor’s office wrote to the house in a letter on Saturday.

The letter, the second from the AG office since last Monday when lawmakers first summoned Mohammad Ishaq Aloko, the AG, to attend its Monday session, shows flexibility in Aloko’s previous stand that the Jirga had no right to call him.

Lawmakers on Saturday once again failed to take a united stand against the country’s leading prosecutor who has been refusing to appear before the house.

On April 3, as many as 118 out of the 126 present members had voted in favour of summoning Aloko to the Parliament, but he did not show up and sent a letter, saying the house had no authority to call him for an inquiry.

However, the attorney general sent a second letter to the Wolesi Jirga on Saturday, saying he will attend the Parliament “very soon to answer questions from MPs”.

Some legislators were of the view that it was against the Constitution to summon the attorney general.

Shahzada Shahid, a representative from eastern Kunar province, said the house had been given the right to summon only ministers under the article 92 of the constitution.

“The House of People on the demand of 20 percent of its members shall make inquiry against a minister. If explanations given are not satisfactory, then the house can reject the explanations through a no-confidence vote, which should be explicit, direct, as well as based on convincing reasons. The vote shall be approved by a majority of members,” the article states.

First deputy speaker, Khalid Pakhtun, also spoke in opposition of summoning Aloko to the Wolesi Jriga. He said Aloko had been given a trust vote by the previous Parliament. “Alkoh is now an acting head of the attorney general office. That is why we cannot summon him,” he said.

But a representative of western Farah province, Mohammad Sarwar Usmani, insisted the Constitution gave the Parliament the right to question the president, ministers, Supreme Court officials and the attorney general.

“If we can not summon the attorney general, his position should be above the presidency,” he said.

After a long discussion, speaker Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi said they could not reach any decision to summon the attorney general due to a lack of quorum. He adjourned the session until Monday.

am/ma

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