|
Karzai Backs Parliament Seat for Afghan Hindus, Sikhs
[An Nahar] Afghanistan's Caped President Hamid Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... on Wednesday ordered parliament to create a new seat for the tiny Hindu and Sikh minority after MPs snubbed their demand for separate representation. There are an estimated 4,000 Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan. The community complain of discrimination, abuse and prejudice in the ultra-conservative Mohammedan country. Their request for a seat in the 249-member lower house was included in an election bill, passed in July after the clause was scrapped on the grounds that the community was so small. Members of the minority then threatened to migrate en masse and Karzai stepped in Wednesday with his decree. Under the Afghan constitution, the president has the power to issue legislative decrees when parliament is in recess but it must be approved by MPs to pass into law. If parliament approves the new seat, it would be contested at Afghanistan's next parliamentary elections in 2015 and raise to 250 the number of representatives in the lower house. Posted by: Fred 2013-09-05 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=375240 |