PAN, May 14, 2008
22 Afghan Parliamentarians accused of avoiding facing the law
Sabit said the MPs were accused of various crimes, from murder to grabbing of land.
Zubair Babakarkhel
KABUL: Attorney general Abdul Jabar Sabit said on Wednesday 22 members of the parliament accused of various crimes have been avoiding facing the law.
The attorney general said the MPs, whom he did not name, were summoned officially many times to attend his office for explanations of the accusations and for investigations.
Sabit said the MPs were accused of various crimes, from murder to grabbing of land.
He vilified the governors of several provinces for corruption and embezzlement, heaping abuse particularly on the governor of Nangarhar province, an Ultra-Untouchable who Sabet says has misappropriated about $6 million intended for reconstruction projects.
Among those Sabet charged in the last year were deputy governors, chief provincial financial officials, judges, and "a good number of police generals."
We have repeatedly sent letters to these MPs through the parliaments administrative office, but we have not got any response said the attorney general in a press conference here.
Sabit said he will announce to the media names of the accused MPs if they did not attend his office for investigations soon.
Head of the MPs privileges and safety committee in the lower house Gul Pacha Majeedi confirmed that they had got official letters from the Attorney Generals office. We have got the letters and we frequently told these MPs to attend the AG office, but none of them did so.
Majeedi said they have told the administrative body of the lower house to bring out the issue to the parliaments session, but it was also not accepted. He added that the AG could use his authority to give the MPs a deadline and then chase them legally if they dont act as wanted.
The attorney general also said that two private television channels have still disobeyed a decree from the information and culture ministry to ban some of the objectionable serials. He named the Afghan TV and Tolo TV which were still broadcasting these foreign televised serials and dubbed into local languages.
The information and culture ministry has earlier banned these as against the Afghan and Islamic culture.
The attorney general said they will send again letters to the two channels to ban it, and if they still defied they will be tried according to the law.
Characters Count: 2895