Tribesmen get visas for Pak-Afghan jirga

Tribesmen get visas for Pak-Afghan jirga

Staff Report
Daily Times, Pakistan
PESHAWAR: Pakistani tribesmen nominated for the joint Pak-Afghan peace jirga starting on August 9 in Kabul visited the Afghan consulate on Thursday to receive travel documents required for a visit to Afghanistan.
“Are you a jirga member?” an Afghan guard asked a tribesman from North Waziristan while welcoming him to the consulate. Afghan diplomats were seen enthusiastic while dealing with jirga members.
Despite strong pessimism that the Pak-Afghan jirga cannot succeed without the participation of the Taliban, Pakistan’s delegation members and Afghan consulate staff looked hopeful.
“Inshallah, the jirga will deliver the desired results,” a jirga member from North Waziristan told Daily Times at the consulate where special arrangements were made to issue visas to tribesmen. The Interior Ministry has directed all passport offices in the NWFP to prepare passports for jirga members on a priority basis.



Inclusion of women in peace Jirga sought
By our correspondent
The News - International, Pakistan
PESHAWAR: Civil society organisations have asked the government to give representation to women in the Pak-Afghan Peace Jirga being held in Kabul in the second week of August.
In a press release issued here on Thursday, the Alliance for Protection of Human Rights (APHR), a group of civil society organisations, flayed the exclusion of women from the three-day peace Jirga to be held from August 9 to 11.
The alliance said that women constituted 48 per cent of the population of Pakistan. It pointed out that women were also the victims of the violence gripping Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan.
It was highly regrettable that the Pakistani authorities did not nominate women for the Jirga, depriving them of the chance to air the grievances and suggest steps for bringing about a durable peace in the region, it added.
The HPHR members, including the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Aurat Foundation, Khwendo Kor, Shirkat Gah, Sungi Foundation, Human Resource Management and Development Centre, Strengthening Participatory Organisation and Noor Education Trust, deplored that the Pakistan government had totally ignored women while appointing delegates to the Jirga, while at the same time the Afghan government gave due importance to women by including them in the proposed peace forum.
The APHR asked the Pakistan government to forthwith name woman delegates for the Jirga so that the whole population of the country is duly represented. It said the lack of women would make the Jirga a fruitless exercise. It urged the government to give 33 per cent representation to women on the Jirga to make it a truly representative gathering.