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Many Afghans accuse people connected to the government of stealing land.
Many Afghans accuse people connected to the government of stealing land.
A major report revealing the names of thousands of alleged land-grabbers in Afghanistan has been released after pressure from lawmakers.

Afghans have long complained about the widespread practice of land-grabbing by well-connected and powerful figures in Kabul and around the country.

To address the issue a special body, the Commission on Monitoring Government Acts of the Afghan Parliament, was set up nearly eight months ago to investigate the seizure of state-owned and private land.

But despite the passing of a draft law by the lower house of parliament in September to prevent land-grabbing, some Afghan lawmakers have been frustrated by what they see as the commission's inaction, in particular in regard to naming names.

Speaking on the phone, Zalmai Mojaddedi, the head of the Commission on Monitoring Government Acts of the Afghan Parliament, told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan on October 21 that the commission had been "forced to release the report."

"Certainly we did this under pressure. Actually, doing so had its problems from a legal point of view. Unless the court has sentenced someone, we cannot give them to the media and cannot say that they have been sentenced,” Mojaddedi said.

Mojaddedi said that his oversight commission has compiled a 2,500-page report that lists more than 15,000 individuals allegedly involved in grabbing over 500,000 hectares of land, worth $7 billion, mainly in the Helmand, Balkh, Kabul, and Herat provinces.

The report singles out 19 people as the main offenders who are alleged to be involved in taking more than 4,000 hectares of land around Afghanistan. Most of these names are lesser-known individuals, although one of them is Said Ishaq Gilani, a former lawmaker.

Gilani was registered to run in the April 2014 presidential election until he was among 16 candidates disqualified by the Independent Election Commission on October 22. The election commission has said that the candidates were disqualified because of improper documents and because they could not collect the required 100,000 signatures from supporters.

The identity -- and exposure -- of the land-grabbers is a highly charged political issue in Afghanistan, with politicians regularly trading accusations.

According to tolonews.com, commission head Mojaddedi recently accused the party of General Abdul Rashid Dostum, a former warlord, of being involved in landgrabs -- claims that were rejected by his party.

"There are some circles that have plotted and started conspiracies against Jumbesh-e Milli and the Commission on Monitoring Government Acts of the Afghan Parliament is a part of this," said Tayanj, a spokesman for the party.

Dostum is a running-mate of Ashraf Ghani Ahmadza, a leading reformer and former World Bank executive, in the upcoming election. Unlike the disqualified Gilani, Ghani made the cut and is on the list of 10 remaining contenders in the upcoming presidential race.

The timing of the report's release has been criticized by some Afghan analysts.

Wadir Safi, a law professor at Kabul University, told Radio Free Afghanistan that some lawmakers are trying to purposely discredit some election candidates.

“It seems to be a political maneuver. Other than that, if the government wanted it could have released the names of the land-grabbers beforehand and the land could even have been taken away from them by now," Safi said. Touching on the issue of naming names, Safi said: "I don’t think that the names of big shots can be released under the current government or that their cases will be even sent to court.”

He added that most of the land-grabbers in the country are the friends and allies of Karzai’s government.

That is a sentiment shared by many ordinary Afghans.

Commenting on Radio Free Afghanistan's Facebook page for young listeners, Arianpoor Afkhami said that the land-grabbing won't be resolved by naming powerless individuals.

“The current list does not include the names of the main land-grabbers. Most of the public properties have been grabbed by high-ranking government officials. The Sherpor area in Kabul, residential areas built in parts of Kandahar, and the lands of Dahana-e Ghori in the Baghlan Province are prominent examples of land-grabbing by senior officials in the current government,” Afkhami said.

Asar Hakimi, a young activist in Kabul, told Radio Free Afghanistan that the list prepared by the oversight commission only contains the names of people who lack connections to the government.

“Even if it contained the names of big shots and powerful individuals, they would have been acquitted by the system. This is actually ridiculing the people of Afghanistan,” Hakimi said.

-- Mustafa Sarwar
Pakistani volunteers search a bus after it was ripped apart in an explosion in Peshawar on September 27. Schoolteacher Haroon-ur-Rashid was one of the 19 who died on the bus.
Pakistani volunteers search a bus after it was ripped apart in an explosion in Peshawar on September 27. Schoolteacher Haroon-ur-Rashid was one of the 19 who died on the bus.
Four-year-old Sudhais is too young to understand the meaning of death. However, he easily realizes that his "Baba" (father) has not come home for the past several days.

Sudhais fastens his eyes on the house's main entrance as soon as the clock ticks five o'clock in the afternoon. Full of hope, he then forces his dejected mother to take him out to call for his father. His insistence soon turns into cries when he doesn't see his father standing behind the main gate with a few small gifts and a plastic bag full of seasonal fruit.

This is the story of the youngest son of an unfortunate schoolteacher, Haroon-ur-Rashid, who along with 18 other people lost his life in a bomb blast on September 27.

Haroon was on way home from his duty station in a bus carrying employees of the Civil Secretariat in Peshawar, a northern Pakistani city bordering Afghanistan, when a bomb ripped through the bus, killing 19 people and injuring more than 40.

And in June 2012, an identical attack was carried out on a bus carrying employees of the Civil Secretariat and Haroon was among those critically injured. He was lucky enough to dodge death that time, but not so lucky when "unidentified" attackers planted another bomb on a bus on which Haroon happened to be traveling.

It was sheer luck that he escaped the first attack and sheer misfortune that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time on September 27. In Pakistan in general, and the northern areas in particular, many people believe they face the prospect of death at any time, mainly because of the increasing terrorist attacks in cities and the adjacent tribal areas.

Two days after Haroon's death, a powerful car bomb went off in Peshawar's historical Qissa Khwani Bazaar, or market of the storytellers, killing 42 people, including 15 belonging to the same family.

The family members of Malak Taj, including women, children, and two men, had gone to Peshawar from the Charsadda district to extend invitations to their relatives and family friends to attend a marriage ceremony on October 20.

Sitting in a van, the 15 family members were passing through the Qissa Khwani market when the huge explosion took place. Like Haroon-ur-Rashid, they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Haroon's wife says they were extremely happy when he survived the first blast in June 2012. "I was in a state of shock when someone told me once again about a blast and my husband's death," she says. "I couldn't believe my ears.... I still can't believe that he is dead.... Everything seems like a nightmare to me."

Haroon left behind three sons and a widow. He was the sole breadwinner for the family. His elder son, 9-year-old Haris Khan, says his father "used to help us with our school homework in the evening. He used to bring gifts, sweets, and fruit for us."

In Pakistan, it has become the practice that the government announces compensation money for families of those killed and injured in terrorist attacks. The usual amount announced for a dead person is 500,000 rupees ($5,000) and 100,000 rupees ($1,000) for an injured person.

Haroon's younger brother Hammad says 100,000 rupees was promised by the government to Haroon's family when he was injured in the first bombing, but then they were offered a check for only 10,000 rupees.

The government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province has announced an amount of 500,000 rupees for those killed and 100,000 rupees for those injured this time. As Haroon was not lucky enough to survive the second blast, his family will be offered 500,000 rupees, although Haroon's wife says she does not need anything from the government.

"The only thing I want from the warring sides is don't snatch the shawls from our heads," she begs, using an expression referring to the killing of a family's breadwinner. Her voice chokes and tears roll down her cheeks.

"For God's sake, stop this war and let us live in peace."

-- Daud Khattak

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