Several political movements in various countries have initiated discussions on Afghanistan’s future political system over the past three years. Most recently, the Federalists Assembly of Afghanistan held a meeting in Vienna, where it introduced its proposed constitution for the post-Taliban political system. The Assembly stated that its proposed constitution consists of 12 chapters and 207 articles, drawing from the experiences of more than 30 federal countries worldwide. According to this constitution, Afghanistan is defined as an Islamic, independent country with a federal parliamentary political system based on the people’s will.
The draft constitution of the Federalist Assembly stipulates that sovereignty belongs to the people and is exercised at two levels—national and state—through free elections or representatives of the people. Under this law, the National Council, proposed by the Assembly, consists of two chambers: the Senate and the House of Representatives. Members of the Senate are considered equal representatives of the states.
The Federalists Assembly of Afghanistan was established by a group of senior officials from the previous government, members of the National Congress Party of Afghanistan, and several independent political, cultural, and civil figures. The Assembly announced that it had introduced the “Constitution of the Federal Republic of Afghanistan” for the post-Taliban system in collaboration with the Universal Peace Federation. Organizers of the meeting said that over two days, speakers discussed practical and scientific solutions to resolve Afghanistan’s crisis, end violence and injustice, and prevent repeated collapses of political systems through the establishment of a federal system.
Mohammad Sarwar Danish, former Vice President and a member of the Federalist Assembly of Afghanistan, stated during the online introduction of the Assembly’s constitution that the people of Afghanistan must reach an agreement on the future political system. He emphasized that the Assembly envisions a transitional government during the transition period, which is structured based on the Assembly’s federal constitution.
Danish mentioned that the Federalist Assembly’s constitution, consisting of 12 chapters and 207 articles, was developed over 40 sessions. He explained that the drafting process utilized the experiences of over 30 countries, including the United States. According to him, the draft will first be presented for consultation with political leaders, intellectuals, and cultural figures before its final version is made available to the people of Afghanistan.
The first chapter of the Federalist Assembly’s constitution introduces the fundamental principles of the federal government, consisting of 34 articles. It defines the principles and rules of the federal system, including the legal system, public institutions, state divisions, resources, and the exclusive and shared powers between the federal government and the states.
Danish introduced Article 1 of the Assembly’s constitution as follows: “Article 1: Afghanistan is an Islamic, independent, committed, and sovereign country with a federal parliamentary political system based on the will of the people.” Article 2 states that sovereignty belongs to the people and is exercised at two levels (national and state) through free elections or representatives of the people.
The Assembly emphasized that under the federal constitution, political power is transferred only through peaceful means and per the law, which will be the supreme law in the Assembly’s proposed system. The Constitution also prohibits the creation of laws that conflict with the federal constitution. Each state will have its own constitution and ordinary laws, but these must not contradict the federal constitution. According to this law, the National Council consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives, with equal representation of the states in the Senate.
Several political figures, including Abdul Latif Pedram, leader of the National Congress Party of Afghanistan and a senior member of the Federalist Assembly of Afghanistan, delivered speeches during the introduction of the constitution. Pedram criticized previous constitutions for being drafted solely by one ethnic group, describing the Assembly’s constitution as the collective work of Afghanistan’s elites. He emphasized that the Assembly’s struggle and practical program would be based on this constitution.
Pedram stated that Afghanistan must change and be different from the current Afghanistan. He claimed that the Federalist Assembly’s program was designed to build a new country with new mechanisms and a new political system, ending the dominance of feudalism and leader-worship. He also called for the recognition of the Hazara genocide in Afghanistan, asserting that he supports its recognition.
The Federalist Assembly announced that it will hold the two-day conference “Federalism, as a Pathway to Social Justice, Peace and Stability in Afghanistan” on February 27-28 in Vienna, Austria. The conference’s purpose is to review practical and scientific solutions for resolving the crisis and introduce the Assembly’s draft Constitution of the Federal Republic.
Meanwhile, Danish urged the Taliban on the first day of the conference to accept the federal system to end war and conflict in Afghanistan. He described the Taliban’s rule as “monopolistic in terms of ethnicity, language, and religion,” stating: “We ask the Taliban, if they want the war and conflict in Afghanistan to end permanently, instead of centralizing and monopolizing power along ethnic, linguistic, and religious lines, they should accept the federal system.”
The former Vice President asserted that Afghanistan’s state-nation-building process was based on a “defective ethnic foundation and the integration of all nationalities into one ethnicity,” which led to failure. Without naming any specific group, he added that certain “power-hungry circles” could not tolerate diversity and pluralism, building the state-nation process on “hegemonic thinking, single-ethnicity rule, and the theory of one nation and one state through assimilation and homogenization.”
While serving as the second Vice President under Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, Danish had previously claimed that parliamentary and federal systems were not feasible or beneficial for Afghanistan.
You can read the Persian version of this daily report here:
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