PUL-I-KHUMRI (Pajhwok): The signing of an agreement with militantsin northern Baghlanprovince means giving them more value and importance, Wolesi Jirga members said on Saturday. The MPs decided to summon the minister of border and tribal affairs after Eid.
Under a memorandum of understanding, the government handed over the Dand-i-Ghori area of Pul-i-Khumri, the provincial capital, public representatives recently claimed.
But Border and Tribal Affairs Minister Mohammad Gulab Mangal said the delegation sent to the province had signed the agreement with the tribal elders of Dahn-i-Ghori, not with the insurgents.
A five-member delegation, led by Mangal, had been sent to the province by the Presidential Palace on August 30 for 10 days to evaluate the security situation there and talk to different people.
The team signed an agreement with the tribal elders of Dahn-i-Ghori district and Dand-i-Ghori area of Pul-i-Khumri. The elders met the government team on behalf of militants.
Under the MoU, there should be no disruptive activity on the Pul-i-Khumri-Mazar-i-Sharif highway between Blocks to Chashma Sher areas. There will be no insurgency on the Larkhab road of Dohn-i-Ghori district and in case of any attack on security checkpoints, people will support police.
According to the deal, government officials are not permitted to arrest anyone without permission from tribal elders. The elements disrupting the security situation will be handed over by elders to security organs.
But Wolesi Jirga member from Badakhshan Fawzia Kofi, speaking in the lower house, observed the MoU amounted to giving more weight to the militants. Those behind signing the deal should be questioned, she demanded.
On the basis of the MoU, part of the country had been handed over to the enemies, remarked another lawmaker from Faryab province, Naqibullah Faiq, who also asked for summoning the officials concerned.
Mere questioning offered no solution to the problem but officials be summoned to seek a fresh confidence vote, suggested legislators from Nangarhar and Farah, Haji Zahir Qadir and Mohammad Osman respectively.
Speaker Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi said no one could act against the national interest. Minister Mangal should be summoned after the Eid-ul-Adha, the Muslim festival that falls on Thursday.
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