KABUL, Dec 20: A day after the inauguration of Afghanistan’s first parliament in decades, lawmakers on Tuesday picked an ex-president to head the upper house, but squabbled over how to choose the influential leader of the lower house.
Elusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar issued a rare statement, denouncing the new legislature as ‘bogus’ and a means for the United States to consolidate its grip on the country. He vowed to step up resistance.
Sibghatullah Mojadidi, president of the first mujahideen government of the early 1990s, was picked to head the 102-seat upper house, or Meshrano Jirga (Elders’ Assembly), a spokeswoman for parliament’s secretariat said.
Mr Mojadidi, a close ally of President Hamid Karzai and seen as a moderate, will serve for the five-year term of the parliament.
The mujahideen government he headed came to power after guerillas overthrew a Soviet-backed regime in 1992, but its members started fighting amongst themselves and were eventually replaced by the Taliban.
Amid emotional opening exchanges in the lower house, deputies disagreed on how to choose a house leader, but agreed to discuss the issue on Wednesday, pro-Karzai lawmaker Khalid Pashtun said.
He described the session as very emotional, with ‘lots of objections and criticism’ and everyone trying to speak at once.
He said 27-year-old woman MP Malalai Joya, an outspoken critic of former warlords who secured assembly seats, was shouted down when she tried to read a statement.
On Monday, Ms Joya told reporters she was upset by an assembly packed with ‘warlords, war criminals and drug lords’ and vowed to reveal their crimes, or resign.
POLLS MARRED BY FRAUD: The parliament is the culmination of a UN-backed plan for democracy, launched after the Taliban’s overthrow in 2001, and was formed after September elections.
Rights groups say the polls were marred by fraud and resulted in assemblies dominated by warlords and their proxies.
Many members have diametrically opposed interests and fierce ideological rivalries.
They range from former Communists to leaders of guerilla groups that overthrew them, to Taliban defectors and idealistic younger technocrats and women’s rights activists.
On Monday, self-styled opposition leader Yunus Qanuni — a former factional official whose forces have been accused of abuses — dismissed concerns about warlords, saying the term was outmoded and the popular vote should be respected.
His comment appeared to underline fears that some MPs would try to block bids to bring war criminals to justice.
