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| Afghanistan | |
| Karzai Calls on Loya Jirga to Convene in October on Afghan Constitution | |
| 2003-07-18 | |
| Could this be called progress ? Whoda thunk it ? Afghanistan’s interim President Hamid Karzai has issued a decree to convene the meeting of a traditional grand council, a "loya jirga," in October that will approve a draft of the country’s new constitution. But, Afghan officials fear the gathering might be delayed because consulting the public on the draft is taking more time than planned. Why don’t they issue a decree that every male returns to the town of his father’s birth... It could be the beginning of great made for television movie to be aired on Afghan TV. "Oh Little Town of Kabul" Afghan officials say their efforts are focused on making sure that the new constitution fully addresses the concerns of the people of Afghanistan. They say a public consultation on the draft has almost been completed and experts have started analyzing the views collected. What exactly does "consulting the public mean" Can most Afghans even read the draft ? Farooq Wardak is a spokesman for the commission crafting the constitution. Speaking to VOA by telephone from Kabul, he says the commission is collecting as many views as possible to prepare a legal document that will smoothly run war-devastated Afghanistan. "We want this constitution to be owned by the people of Afghanistan," he said. "It can only be owned when their views are incorporated
then they will feel responsibility to implement it and respect it." Mr. Wardak says intense efforts are being made to complete the constitution-making process before October, when the grand assembly will meet to approve the final document. But he says the meeting could be delayed if the public consultation is not finished. "We will see the realities on the ground," he said. "If we
do not get people’s opinion on time and second, having a good public education campaign and the third, of course we have to develop our own capacity to meet these challenges, should there be a need to delay the holding of the constitutional "Loya Jirga" for some days
" The public consultation process has reportedly caused conflicts between extremist Muslim groups who want the Islamic character of Afghanistan maintained in the new constitution, and secularists who want it to embrace more liberal traditions.
This actually sounds as if someone is giving some thought to this whole democracy thing in Afganistan. Best of luck ! | |
| Posted by:Domingo |