Monday would be regarded as one of the important days in the constitutional progress of the country when the Population Registration Act was approved by the Lower House of Parliament. The Act included five chapters and 39 articles, including the most controversial provision according to which the ethnicity was to be mentioned on the ID cards. The House approved the law according to which ethnicity will not be mentioned on the ID cards. Although some of the parliamentarians criticized and left the floor of the house in protest but the bill was approved by a healthy majority.

It was once again sad to see that our parliamentarians exhibited impolite manners and used non-constitutional language when the law that ethnicity should not be mentioned, was approved. They termed it to be ‘unconstitutional’ while governor of Balkh threatened not to collect the cards if the ethnicity was not mentioned on the card.

We are all aware that three decades long civil war was based on ethnic differences when people with different ethnic backgrounds had made armed groups and worked for the benefits of its own group. Such strong feelings about ethnic identification not only divided the nation mentally but also brought them in front of each other in an armed conflict that left millions of Afghan dead and millions were displaced from their houses.

In the same way, foreign powers have always successfully interfered in the issues of Afghanistan by dividing Afghans into different groups based on ethnicity and then helping these ethnic groups to fight against each other. Even in the present democratic setup that has been acquired after the bloodshed and sacrifices of many decades and millions of Afghans, there are present divides among Afghans in different ministries and posts due to the same ethnic sensitivities. However, the present constitution of Afghanistan asserts unity among the different ethnic groups of the country so that they may be able to join hands for the progress of the country and prosperity of their fellow-citizens.

With all these facts in mind, it is really disgusting to see that there are still present some people who don’t understand the critical and sensitive nature of this problem and assert on mentioning of ethnicity on the ID cards. The Registration Authority of Afghanistan has already stated that ethnic information is saved in the database after which there remains no need of mentioning it separately on the ID cards.

On the other hand, majority of our educated and representative Afghans are also of the view that ethnic differences should not be much deepened and we all should be proud of being an Afghan, instead of Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbek, Hazara or others. Such a wise and mature thinking would ensure the long term unity among the different ethnicities of the country and it is hoped that our parliamentarians and leaders would also try to look at the situation from the same angle.