MPs in the Wolesi Jirga (Lower House of Parliament) on Monday rejected President Ashraf Ghani’s legislative decree on amending the population registration law. 

The decree called for the law to be amended and for the 4th and 6th Articles of the Population Registration Law to be removed. 

The amendment calls for the words nationality and ethnicity to be included - words that are currently not noted in the law. 

The decree called for the nationality and ethnicity information to be added following requests by the public and political parties. However, MPs rejected the move outright. 

“Disagreements lasted for three years and finally government is forcing a change in the law,” MP Qudratullah Zaki said. 

A number of MPs however said a vote should be held on the amendment and that nationality and ethnicity should be registered on new national identity cards. 

“Respected commission and the administrative board! First vote on government's outline,” MP Kamal Nasir Osoli said. 

The population registration law was approved by parliament on 2013 and included five sections and 39 articles. But debates have been ongoing over the law regarding the inclusion of nationality and ethnicity on ID cards. 

Critics have said this is the primary reason for the new national ID cards not having been rolled out yet.