Haji Alam Gull Kuchi

Haji Alam Gul Kuchi, is an Afghan parliamentarian representative of the Kuchi nomads in the Afghan Wolesi-jirga or house of representatives.

In the 9th of April 2008 session of Afghan parliament dozens of representatives left the chamber in protest against the racist remarks made by Haji Alam Gul Kochi. The incident occurred over disagreements on a draft version of Afghanistan's election law. Specifically, the draft included an item that allows for the Kuchi nomads to have the right to vote in any constituency all over the country while the rest of the population can only vote in their respective provincial constituencies. The item in question was protested to be against article 22 of Afghan constitution which says no ethnic group could have any advantage over the other.

Following the protest of non-Pashtuns and Non-Kochi representatives against the particular item in the elections law draft, the Kuchi representative Haji Alam Gul sparked a standoff when he said that "kuchis are the real people/inhabitants of Afghanistan, other groups [Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks, etc] are all immigrants." (BBC Persian, April, 9, 2008). He later added that there's nothing wrong with his statement because "that's true that we [Kochis, and Pashtons?] are the majority and we are the heirs of this land." (BBC Persian, April, 16, 2008)

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/afghanistan/story/2008/04/080409_k-ram-afg-parliament.shtml BBC Persian, 9th April, 2008]

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/afghanistan/story/2008/04/080416_k-a-afg-parliament-strike.shtml BBC Persian, 16th April, 2008]