KABUL - The ""'Wolesi Jirga, or lower house of the Parliament, passed on Wednesday a 51-article law on exchanging criminals with countries that have extradition treaties with Afghanistan. Under the law, the government in Kabul will deliver an Afghan citizen accused of a committing crime or convicted in a foreign country, said the head of Parliament's justice commission.

Mohammad Mohaqiq added the Afghan government, by the same token, would seek the transfer of a foreigner who leaves after committing a crime or being convicted in Afghanistan.

The transfer is possible to a country that has signed an extradition treaty with Afghanistan under international conventions. The transfer of a convict will be based on a transparent trial.

In the past, there was no such rule in the country, said a member of the justice commission, Mohammad Rafiq Shahir. The law enables Afghanistan to ink extradition pacts with other countries, he told Pajhwok Afghan News.

In reply to a query, Shahir said: "There is an established legal principle that provides for treating a criminal according to the law of the land where commits an offense."

Worried by the law, Wolesi Jirga member Abdul Sattar Khawasi said the Afghan government was unable to ensure the transfer of a criminal from another country. Contrarily, he complained, other countries punished Afghans under their own regulations.