Wolesi Jirga fails to hold general session

KABUL on Wednesday failed to hold its general session after a majority of the members did not turn up for a second day.

Under internal rules, the lower house conducts general sessions on Saturday, Monday and Wednesday and holds panel meetings on Sunday and Tuesday every week.

Though the Eid holidays had ended on Sunday, a majority of lawmakers remain absent from the assembly.

Wolesi Jirga deputy secretary Irfanullah Irfan told Pajhwok Afghan News the general session could not be conducted due to a lack of quorum and a “compulsory agenda.”

He said about 35 house members had gone to Saudi Arabia for the performance of this year’s pilgrimage and others to their native provinces on account of Eid holidays.

He said next Saturday’s general session would discuss a draft commerce law, but added he was not sure if the quorum would be complete that day. “We trying to complete the quorum and hold the session.”

A lawmaker from central Maidan Wardak province, Ghulam Hussain Nasir, criticised his colleagues who failed to show up after Eid holidays. He said some MPs were not cooperating well with the administrative delegation.

He said the house panels discussed draft laws before presenting the measures to a general session. The lower house has 18 commissions and 245 members.

Lawmaker Shakiba Hashmi from southern Kandahar province said that today’s session should have taken place because there were other important issues that needed to be discussed in addition to draft laws.

“If there was nothing on the agenda, we should have discussed the Kabul Bank scandal, the Paghman gang-rape case because some international organisations have called for not executing the alleged rapists. There are many other important debates as well.”

President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai had ordered the reopening of the Kabul Bank case and police had arrested two defaulters during a crackdown to arrest the rest involved in the scandal that nearly collapsed the national economy.

Five men convicted in the Paghman gang-rape case were on Wednesday afternoon hanged at the Pul-i-Charkhi prison.

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