Tom Perriello: Amnesty Update

I want to make a brief amendment to my earlier post about the national amnesty bill based on two recent meetings. One was with a leading Afghan law professor and another was with one of a top government official on Parliamentary affairs. Both have insisted that the national amnesty act was merely a Parliamentary Declaration rather than a law. They both cited the same definitive proof – under the Afghan Constitution a law can only originate and be drafted by the taqnin within the ministry of justice. Otherwise the motion is just a Declaration.

Comments

[PCG]

Tom - it is interesting that you heard this from a leading professor. My reading of the constitution is quite the opposite. Article 81 clearly states that the National Assembly is the "highest legislative organ". Article 90 stipulates that the National Assembly has the duties of "ratification, modification or abrogation of laws or legislative decrees". Thus while the executive branch can initiate laws they must be ratified by the National Assembly before they become law. If we turn to artice 79, there is a reference that the president can pass a law if parliament is not in session, but that it must be ratified by the National Assembly within 30 days of their resumption and "if rejected by the National Assembly, they become void". Seems pretty clear to me

Finally, to my knowledge, there is no reference to the Taqnin in the constitution.

If possible we should meet and discuss further.

Drop me an email sometime.