KABUL - The Meshrano Jirga or upper house of parliament on Tuesday refused to allow the deputy interior minister and the deputy spymaster to brief it on the country’s security situation on behalf of their seniors.
The senators on Sunday last summoned National Directorate of Security (NDS) chief Masoom Stanikzai and Interior Minister Taj Mohammad Jahid to brief the assembly on security related issues and their budget.
During Tuesday’s general session presided over by Farhad Sakhi, the 1st deputy chairman, the deputy heads of the two security organs appeared before house in place the interior minister and the NDS chief. 
Farhad Sakhi said the two security organs’ heads had been called to the Presidential Palace and thus their inability to appear before the Senate and their deputies appeared instead.
But the public representatives stressed there was no security issue in Kabul and all topics and questions of the assembly members should be directly asked from the interior minister and the spymaster.
The senators rejected the two deputies to answer their questions after a majority vote. 
The lawmakers also expressed their views on the peace process especially the signing of a peace deal with Gulbadin Hikmatyar-led Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) by the government.
Senator Mohammad Hassan Hotak called the peace deal with HIA a major achievement thanks to support from different groups of people and said the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC)’s head remarks about the HIA leader were questionable.
“The AIHRC head has expressed concern over the peace deal with HIA and said Hikmatyar should apologise to Afghan people,” he said, adding if it was the case then all jihadi leaders who participated in the civil war should apologise to the people. “If cannot happen then the AIHRC head should apologise to Hikmatyar for what she said.”
Another lawmaker Dawood Ghafari said: “We support the peace accord with HIA and we don’t have any problem with it, but Hikmatyar, who fought for 15 years against Afghanistan government and against Mujahidin shouldn’t be compared to other jihadi leaders.” 
He said if the AIHRC head had asked Hikmatyar for apology, she might have reasons for that.
Nisar Haris, a Wolesi Jirga member, said every citizen of Afghanistan needed security and said: “We pin our hopes on the High Peace Council (HPC) to take more serious steps in this regard so people’s desire of seeing a peaceful and stable Afghanistan can be reached.”
At the end of the session, Farhad Sakhi also supported the government-HIA peace deal and said: “Every citizen of our country who takes steps toward peace and shuns violence, we support him.”
Afghanistan’s peace doors were open for everyone, he said, calling the government-HIA peace agreement a great achievement.
The Wolesi Jirga session also discussed hardships being faced by Afghan refugees in Europe. They also debated about elections, electoral reform and the issue of unregistered political parties and others.
The session also welcomed President Ashraf Ghani’s move of overseeing police districts.   (Pajhwok)