Lawmakers on Monday accused the government of corruption, saying major cases involving high-profile government and non-government suspects are not being investigated seriously by the Attorney General’s office. 

The lawmakers cited dozens of large-scale corruption and embezzlement cases that are not pursued for political reasons.

Ramazan Bashardost, an MP, said, “Unfortunately, the legal organizations cannot enforce the law, so powerful people are encouraged to keep embezzling millions of dollars.” 

“The work of the national unity government in the past five years was just slogans, it was not effective. Unfortunately, the court just acts symbolically,” said Amir Mohammad Khaksar, an MP.

Citizens also say that they have heard about the arrest of senior government officials, but afterward their cases are not pursued. 

“We have heard that some officials are under investigation, but they are not investigated because it would become politicized."  Said Basir Fatri, a citizen.

“till now the government has not fought corruption or brought perpetrators to trial,” said Arash, a Kabul citizen.

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC)  confirmed that some criminal cases are not investigated by the justice department.

Zabihullah Farhang, media head of the Human Rights Commission, said, “We hope that the organizations responsible for justice would respond seriously to complaints, and focus on complaints more.”

Jamshed Rasouli, the spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, rejected these claims and added that their office has been investigating 65 cases at the Anti-Corruption Justice Center over the last three years.

He said they have sentenced 239 senior officials, including deputy ministers, generals, colonels, governors, mayors, provincial council members and commissioners. “All of the cases that were referred to the Attorney General’s office have been investigated carefully, transparently and justly.”