KABUL - A number of Wolesi Jirga members on Wednesday demanded that membership of lawmakers who were permanently absent from the house should be suspended or their salaries cut.
Today’s Wolesi Jirga session discussed the issue but no one was named.
However, one of the lawmakers, who wished to go unnamed, told Pajhwok Afghan News 10 lower house members were permanently absent while 20 of them only attended the house’s important sessions.
The MP said two of the permanent absent lawmakers had sought asylum in Europe. Currently the Wolesi Jirga has 236 members.
Lawmaker Humaira Ayubi told today’s session lawmakers who had been absent for years
She sought legal action against absent representatives and said the salaries of such lawmakers should be cut and their duties suspended.
“We will always have the quorum problem until we enforce internal regulations,” she said.
Mohammad Ali Alizad, a lawmaker from southern Ghazni province said: “If you want to protect the honor of this house then we should enforce internal regulations equally on all members.”
The names of permanently absent lawmakers should be revealed to the public, he said.
Speaker Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi said: “Permanent absence of lawmakers is a matter of disappointment. I as administrative head has always tried to resolve the problem, but failed.”
However, he said permanently absent lawmakers or those who only appeared in important meetings would be seriously dealt with and exposed to the media and people.
Ibrahimi asked the permanent commission of the lower house to share attendance records of lawmakers with the administrative board. (Pajhwok)