Call for judicial probe: Swat Qaumi Jirga demands inquiry into roots of militancy

Rejects government’s tax imposition on Malakand Division.

SWAT:

The Swat Qaumi Jirga unanimously demanded the government to form a judicial commission to investigate the three years of atrocities by militants in Swat.

The jirga held in Mingora on Sunday discussed the overall situation in the valley and condemned the recent wave of terrorism.

‘We demand that the president and chief justice appoint a judicial commission to carry out a thorough inquiry into the mayhem, which occurred in Swat and is still happening in one form or another. They should investigate how terrorism was established here, which state institutions showed slackness in their duty and who nurtured it,’ jirga members said.

They maintained that the Swat Qaumi Jirga supported the Pakistan Army during the military operation and is still in its favour to help eliminate extremist forces.

However, we feel that security forces are not carrying out their duties properly. In areas where security measures should be intensified, the number of personnel is not enough, jirga members said.



“There is an immediate need to ease security on check posts so that transporters can move about smoothly. Locals are unnecessarily teased at check points and the behaviour of security forces is humiliating.”

The jirga rejected the government’s move to impose taxes in Malakand Division and stated that implementation of tax in the division is a violation of the constitution. “Anything to be imposed in Malakand should be passed by the assembly, through an ordinance by the President of Pakistan to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa governor, in which the local jirga will be taken into confidence as well.”

The jirga also opposed dialogue with terrorists and said that until they do not stop their anti-state activities and throw down arms completely, no dialogues should be initiated with them. “We have already witnessed an accord between the government and the terrorists once, so now we will not accept such a settlement. The miseries of Swat’s people should not be multiplied,” a jirga member said.

Load-shedding hours in the valley were also discussed and condemned in the meeting. “Only four to five hour of power cuts are observed in the rest of the country, whereas we are experiencing more than 20 hours of outages, it said.

The jirga also asked the government to ensure availability of gas in CNG stations so that problems of transporters and public are resolved. We request the chief justice to take action against all those who are violating Supreme Court orders in CNG dealings, participants said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st, 2013.