Sending a strong message to the bureaucracy, the Afghan government arrested three members of the upper house of parliament for accepting bribes from custom officials in the country, TOLOnews reported. The arrests were by the National Directorate of Services (NDS) and the Attorney General’s office.

“Three members of the Meshrano Jirga (upper house) were arrested when (they were) accepting $40,000 as a bribe in a joint operation by the Attorney General’s Office and the National Directorate of Security, which was planned in response to intelligence reports," Jamshid Rasuli, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, was quoted by TOLOnews.

The arrests were made in Kunduz province. This is the first time the NDS has made such arrests of lawmakers in the country. All evidence, based on Afghanistan’s constitution, was available for this time, claimed Balkh province governor Farhad Azami.

Meanwhile, the upper house released a statement on the arrests, saying a committee was formed to investigate the matter. The Afghan government has consistently been criticized by western donor countries for failing to act on or to prosecute the officials involved in corruption.  

We doubt the seriousness in the government’s actions in following big corruption cases including the cases of lawmakers,” Nasir Taimuri, a researcher at Integrity Watch Afghanistan, was quoted as saying by TOLOnews.