KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered a one month delay to the inauguration of parliament after a special election court asked for more time to look into fraud allegations, his office said Wednesday. Karzai promised there would be no delay beyond the new Feb. 22 target for forming the assembly, but by then Afghanistan will have been without a parliament for more than five months. Over 200 members of parliament condemned the court as unconstitutional, chose a temporary speaker and planned an unofficial opening for the original inauguration day, Jan. 23. There are 249 seats in the lower house of parliament so a firm majority seem prepared to face down the president. “It is our right, we are the representatives of our people and we don't care what the government or the court say,” lawmaker Amir Khan Yaar, one of the group, told Reuters. The fraud-riddled poll and months of drawn-out political infighting over the results have raised questions about the credibility of Karzai and his government as rulers, and as partners for foreign nations backing him with troops and cash. Karzai himself set up the special tribunal that put the breaks on parliament, issuing a presidential decree after protests by losing candidates angry at corruption and winners frustrated that they still had not taken their seats. “To pay tribute to the special poll court, the Presidential Palace delays the inauguration,” his office said in a statement. “It is worth mentioning that the parliament will be inaugurated ... without any further delays,” it added. Bomb blast kills 20 Twenty Afghan civilians, including 13 children, were killed by a roadside bomb in southeastern Afghanistan Wednesday, a senior official said, in the country's deadliest insurgent attack in nearly six months. Brigadier General Josef Blotz, senior spokesman for NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, said 13 children and six women were among the dead in Wednesday's attack in Khoshamand district of Paktika, a volatile province south of Kabul, that borders Pakistan.“It is another spike in this brutal Taliban arsenal and tactics and techniques. It is unjustifiable, it is brutal,” Blotz said in an interview with Reuters.
