The speaker of the Afghan parliament, Mir Rahman Rahmani, on Wednesday ordered the parliament’s secretariat to disclose the names of those members who consistently remain absent from the parliamentary sessions.

“Once again I want to urge the honorable secretary to share with the media the names of those who remain absent,” said Rahmani, amid public criticism over the persistent absenteeism of the lawmakers from the legislative assembly.

But parliament secretaries on Wednesday again refrained from giving the media the names of those remaining absent from the legislation process.

“If the administrative board of the parliament does not share it with media, that is a violation,” said MP Ghulam Hussain Naseri.

Reportedly some lawmakers did not attend the House of Representatives for even one day since the end of the summer recess.

But other lawmakers have accused the government and the media of plotting against the legislative body.

“I want to call on the faithful people of Afghanistan to say that the deputy minister of interior for security is himself involved in corruption, and he is incompetent. This man has increased the scale of the war in Afghanistan,” said Abdul Sattar Hussaini, a member of parliament, referring to Khushal Saadat, the deputy minister of interior for security.

A tense standoff occurred recently between the Afghan police and the lawmakers when police cracked down on the illegal use of armored vehicles and guards by the MP.

Journalists respond:

“The journalists and media outlets covering it does not mean there is a plot;  they have reported only the reality,” said local Afghan journalist Baseer Fitrat.

“What we have seen is against the national interest, so we reported on that,” said Mirwais Salamzoi, a journalist.

“When the lawmakers left for their summer recess, there were a series of problems; there was no complete quorum, but recently the quorum is much better,” said Abdul Baqi Rashid, a researcher for the Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan (FEFA).