KABUL (PAN): Two Meshrano Jirga -- upper house of parliament -- members on Wednesday came to blows after exchanging harsh words over the draft election law, officials said.
Over the past 11 years, parliamentary elections have been conducted under legislative decrees, but five months back, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) prepared an amended draft law and sent it to the Wolesi Jirga.
After being approved by the lower house, the new law that has 17 chapters and 67 articles was referred to the Meshrano Jirga for debate and passage.
The senators divided Kuchis into seven constituencies, reserved one Wolesi Jirga seat for Hindus and 25 percent of provincial council seats for women.
A day earlier, the lawmakers approved two articles of the proposed law. Today, some senators differed over some of the articles, calling them against the constitution.
Mohammad Faqiri from Baghlan and Syed Agha Hussain Samangani traded blows in the wake of testy exchanges. Samangani hurled voting cards at Faqiri, who threw a bottle of water at his colleague.
Amid a heated debate, Senate Chairman Fazal Hadi Muslimyar told the session the rest of articles of the draft law would be discussed and okayed next week.
Minor changes have been made to some of the articles passed by the Wolesi Jirga, Senate Judicial Commission head Hafiz Abdul Qayyum said.
The draft law suggested one constituency for Kuchis, but the Wolesi Jirga changed it to 10. Now the senators have reduced the number to seven.
