KABUL - Meshrano Jirga members on Sunday lashed out at Minister of Energy and Water Mohammad Ismail Khan's plan to set up a council of mujahideen.

Last week, the minister said peace could not be ensured without the cooperation of mujahideen after the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.

Addressing a gathering in western Herat province, Khan said he was working on the mujahideen council and had discussed the idea with the president and some ex-jihadi leaders.

But a senator from southern Helmand province, Sher Mohammad Akhundzada, denounced the proposed council as a step against the Afghan people and government.

The Helmand people, who participated in Thursday's meeting in Herat, in no way represented the province, the legislator insisted.

Akhundzada asked the minister: "Show me a single dam that you have built. When you couldn't do this, how come you form a council of mujahideen?"

He claimed Khan had invited a handful of people from Helmand and Kandahar to the meeting, but called them representatives of the entire southern zone. "This is unacceptable to us."

A public representative from central Bamyan province, Hidayatullah Rehaee, also saw no need for creating the shura in the presence of the Afghan army, police and intelligence.

If established, the council would raise questions about the government's security organs, the lawmaker said.

Mohammad Daud Hassas, a senator from southern Zabul province, said the masses should not be deceived again in the name of the mujahideen council, whose proponents were trying to push the country into a new crisis. Infighting among the jihadi leaders in the 1990s had damaged the cause of jihad.

Those speaking on people's behalf should accord primacy to the supreme national interest, Deputy Chairman Mohammad Alam Ezedyar remarked, without naming anyone.

The system should be strengthened to bring security to the country, he said. "We should work to make the system foolproof and enhance the capacity and strength of the Afghan army, police and intelligence."

He also called for addressing concerns among the people about the situation after the 2014 withdrawal of NATO-led forces from the country. (Pajhwok)