Kabul: Around 2,000 Afghan elders to arrange a jirga this week as Afghan President Hamid Karzai look for support for a security partnership with the U.S. after the scheduled withdrawal of international troops by the end of 2014.
The loya jirga, or grand council which begins on Wednesday, could give Hamid Karzai political cover for negotiations over a deal to keep some American troops in Afghanistan for another decade despite opposition from his people and the war-weary U.S. public.
The approximately 100,000 U.S. troops currently operate in Afghanistan without any bilateral agreement governing their actions.
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said discussions were ongoing with the Afghan government.
“We want an agreement that’s in the best interest of both our countries,” Toner said. “It’s better to get it right rather than fast.”
Parliamentarians say the meeting is unconstitutional because it sidelines the legislature, which should be the body to decide national issues.
“The real representatives of the people are in parliament. We have been elected. The jirga delegates have only been selected by the administration,” said Nasrullah Sadiqizada Nili, a lawmaker from Day Kundi province. Although parliamentarians have been invited, Nili said he and many others would not attend in protest.
“This loya jirga has no legitimacy,” Nili said.
Karzai’s former presidential challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, ridiculed the idea of Karzai’s hand-picking a group of people to represent a national consensus.
He warned that if people accept this jirga as legal, Karzai could easily call another to try to amend the constitution so that he can run for a third term as president.
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